[MASSBIRD] PARKER RIVER NWR Plans to DESTROY All Three Freshwater Impoundments

[Rick Nok]

Their plan is to remove the dikes or portions of the dikes and allow the free flow of salt water into all three impoundments (North Pool, Forward Pool, and Stage Island Pool) thereby destroying these unique habitats.

It is an absolutely insane idea to be destroying these critically important impoundments for the chimera of adding habitat for one species, the Saltmarsh Sparrow. I have fifty years of experience of intensively studying the birds of Plum Island, and have seen many changes over the years, so I can add an historical perspective to the issue.

The Forward Pool, and to a slightly lesser extent, Stage Island Pool, are one of THE premier staging and high tide roost sites for more than a dozen species of shorebirds. Many tens of THOUSANDS use these areas, probably 50,000 shorebirds each year, perhaps more. It is probably the MOST important site north of Cape Cod in the entire Northeast. There is a plethora of data for these impoundments documenting usage by many thousands of ducks, shorebirds, and egrets, etc., for decades.

Forward Pool (and the salt pans when not flooded) is one of basically two sites (along with the Monomoy Point ponds) in all of Massachusetts where Long-billed Dowitchers and Stilt Sandpipers still occur in numbers.

2. THIS is what they want to destroy, flooding it every high tide so that there will be no places for shorebirds to roost and no flats to forage upon?

3. The North Pool has extensive cattail and Phragmites Reed beds that provides habitat during migration for nightly roosts of up to an estimated quarter MILLION swallows, mostly Tree, but also thousands of Barn, and lesser numbers of Bank, Cliff, and Purple Martins. This amazing spectacle, this annual phenomena, will be GONE with the destruction of the North Pool.

4. Also, there are nightly roosts of Northern Harriers each winter in the reed beds at the North Pool. I’ve counted as many as 21 harriers dropping in to roost here. GONE if this impoundment is destroyed

5. There are still several pair of Least Bitterns breeding annually at the North Pool and Stage. There are also Virginia Rails and healthy populations of Marsh Wrens. These impoundments are Gadwall and Mallard factories with more than a dozen pair of each species with young observed each year. American Black Ducks and Green-winged Teal also breed here with regularity is small numbers. Flocks of thousands of ducks utilize these impoundments during migration, including Black Ducks, Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, and American Wigeon.

6. The illusory idea that removing a portion of the dikes at these three impoundments will create some beautiful and diverse salt marsh and that dozens of pairs of Saltmarsh Sparrows will magically show up and start breeding there is completely unfounded. Far more likely these these impoundments will fill up with even more Phragmites and attract zero sparrows.

7. First of all, there are hundreds of acres of EXISTING salt marsh on the refuge that currently have few to no Saltmarsh Sparrows utilizing them. The overwhelming majority of the Great Marsh Saltmarsh Sparrows population is centered in the area north of the wardens (sub-HQ) to Pine Island and to Newburyport Harbor. There are also healthy populations in many more inland salt marsh along the Parker and Rowley Rivers and their numerous creeks. There are comparatively very few sparrows utilizing the south Plum Island marshes despite their expansiveness.

8. There are VERY few Saltmarsh Sparrows breeding in the EXISTING EXTENSIVE marshes abutting the North Pool, the Forward Pool, and Stage Island Pool. There is absolutely no reason to assume or expect that ANY sparrows will move into the relatively, comparatively, small acreage of these impoundments just because they are flooded with sea water.

9. Opening up the North Pool to the flow of tidal seawater will guarantee that the freshwater swamps of the Hellcat Maritime Forest will be inundated with seawater when storms coincide with astronomical tides. This will kill off ALL inundated vegetation and destroy and deforest half of the Hellcat Freshwater Swamp.

10. All of this destruction, of a MAJOR shorebird site, of the largest swallow roost in the Northeast, of a harrier roost (who have also bred there), of thousa of migratory dabbling ducks, breeding fresh marsh waterfowl and bitterns, along with the inundation of Hellcat Swamp with seawater, destroying the forest, ALL for the sake of one single species, which is highly unlikely to move into these sites, is an inexplicable lunacy! It’s incomprehensible. I would bet anything that not a single pair of Saltmarsh Sparrows move into these areas.

I urge everyone who cares about the refuge and its birds to fight this very dangerous and damaging proposal. It it occurs the refuge will never be the same. It will be a shadow of its former self in regard to bird diversity and numbers.

Rick Heil
Peabody, MA
rshei...@gmail.com

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