Refuge Biology Program Monthly Report Midway Atoll Nation Wildlife Refuge October 2016 Submitted by: Meg Duhr-Schultz, Wildlife Refuge Specialist Volunteer Program The biology volunteer program continues to grow by leaps and bounds. A major recent development is the addition of 3 full-time Kupu interns who will be working for the Refuge until August 2017. We all know that returning volunteers are worth their weight in gold, but we were exceptionally fortunate in our ability to select three particularly dedicated and talented former Midway biology volunteers for this opportunity.

Meet the Kupu interns from left to right: Kristina McOmber, member of the fall/winter 2016 crew, will be serving as the Volunteer Crew Leader. Wieteke Holthuijzen, 2015 biology volunteer, will be supporting biotech Ann Humphrey on Verbesina eradication and other invasive plant mapping and control efforts. David Dow, long-time bird counter and Refuge biology volunteer in 2012 and 2015-16, will serve as our Plant Propagation Specialist. The experience, energy, and passion these folks have for Midway habitat and wildlife management is hard to match and we’re lucky to have them back and in a capacity that makes long-term volunteering a financially sustainable option for them.

The new four-person “regular” volunteer crew arrived to Midway on October 11th. This will be the third volunteer crew rotation to commit to a 6-month tour of duty and by all indicators (volunteer satisfaction, quality of work, and on-the-ground achievements) the shift to a longer season has been a change for the better. It has certainly not led to a decrease in the number of applicants! Meg selected the current crew from a 60-person applicant pool, a long and arduous process, but well worth the effort. From left to right below (not wearing a blue Kupu shirt): Beth Wolff of Colorado, Michelle Smith from Hawaii Island, Miki’ala Taylor from Maui, and kneeling in the green shirt is Eric Baker, also from Colorado.

A 6-month volunteer rotation allows Refuge staff to direct more energy and time to detailed and intensive training at the start of the season--the idea being that a high initial investment pays off in volunteers who have greater connection to their work and why they do it, can function at a high level with a decreasing need for direct supervision, and are, of course, completing tasks as safely as possible—for humans and wildlife. Shortly after arrival, we plunged into our training and orientation schedule which included presentations and hands-on training in: native and exotic plant identification, duck surveys and botulism detection, cart safety and fueling operations, herbicide mixing and application safety, weed control methods, native plant propagation and seed collection, and operation of all the accompanying data systems for each element of the Refuge Biology program. Starting over with a brand new labor force two times per year can mean that a lot of on-going Refuge work doesn’t get done. Fortunately, we had Honolulu-based biotechs Amanda Boyd and Allie Hunter on loan for over a month this fall to assist with on-going weed control, seabird mitigation projects, habitat restoration, and other critical work. We are very grateful to both the Honolulu office for sharing these talented women with Midway and to Refuge Management for leaping the logistical hurdles required to make it happen.

Above left: Amanda Boyd feeds a white tern from the FAA tree-clearing project. Above right: Allie Hunter returns addled eggs to a

cattle egret nest, part of our long-term efforts to keep the population of this invasive species in check. Invasive Plant Control Environmental conditions, lapses in volunteer crew staffing in September, and weed control setbacks incurred over the course of preparations for the POTUS visit to Midway led to horrific weed conditions within the restoration areas and elsewhere across the Refuge this fall. It appears that a crucial control interval was missed at some point in September and by the time the current crew had gained sufficient plant ID skills and spray techniques to be trusted with a backback sprayer in the restoration sites, it was too late: many aggressive invasive weeds such as Eleusine indica, Heliotropium procumbens, Eragrostis tenella, Dactylon aegyptum and others had already set seed. Other weeds which had been absent from areas for several years, such as Verbesina enceliodes and Pluchea indica made return appearances, forcing a re-prioritization of weed species and restoration sites to in order to focus control energies in areas where the weeds had not yet set seed. The upshot to this situation is that the volunteer crew was available to provide more assistance with Verbesina control where and when it was needed this month, as well as focus most of our other weed control efforts on the FAA tree removal area. The western, low-elevation half of this site has seen a major explosion of invasive weeds following the large-scale soil disturbance resulting from tree removal using a bulldozer and excavator. The site has high restoration potential because it does have an existing native seed bank of the native sedge Cyperus polystacheos, and shares a border with two established and high quality restoration sites, Brackish Pond and the Gash. Current intensive weed control efforts cannot be continued indefinitely, but we hope that by controlling this first flush of weeds and ensuring that they do not set seed will support future native plant diversity in this location. We have employed a mixture of hand-pulling and herbicide application methods to keep the weeds in check here.

Restoration Site Management The vast majority of our site maintenance efforts in October were focused on the FAA tree clearing area (named the “Gash Expansion” in Midway restoration site nomenclature). We are currently watering the 480 plants that were planted in mid-September twice/week. October saw above-average daily temperatures with no measurable rainfall. Because this site is not located near any hydrants, out-plant watering must be done by hand and with a small 50 gallon tank, which requires significant crew time. Petrels have also returned to their old nest sites in the area and with the ironwoods gone, our newly established native plants present the only available root structure for new burrow roofs. Unfortunately, we must fence the petrels out and backfill all digging several times a week until the plants are established enough to withstand the root damage caused by petrels. Following tree removal in late August and months of preparation ahead of the action, a major direct seeding effort into the disturbed soils at the FAA tree clearing area took place this fall. Between September and October, nearly the entire annual seed collection inventory was used at this site, a total of 11556 grams of pure, live seed from 12 species. Direct seeding is not a method that can be used in many locations on Midway due to the high abundance and diversity of invasive weeds which easily out-compete the slower-growing NW Islands natives. The bare, disturbed ground of this location, however, coupled with a spatial scale too large for revegetation with potted plants only, made it a suitable location for a large scale direct seeding effort of native species, the first project of its kind at MANWR.

Above: Total grams of pure, live seed sown into the FAA tree removal area. The site is divided into 5 sub areas, based primarily on elevation differences and substrate type. Species were seeded into areas based on typical growing conditions. For example, a salt-

tolerant native wetland sedge is the dominant species in the low elevation area where water collects and SLR modeling data indicate potential for washover events; whereas more rare species, such as Popolo and Lepidium were only seeded into the higher elevation areas. Seeding densities and mixes were set according to availability of material and outcome assessment of previously used direct

seeding approaches in other restoration sites. NWRA Restoration Data Management Specialist, Rob Taylor has worked with the staff here to design and implement a field experiment to track germination and overall success of several rare (at Midway) plant species within 16 one meter square plots. He has also developed a draft methodology for monitoring outplant survival and performance. The first field data collection effort is planned for early November and initial results will be reported at that time.

Above left: KUPU intern David Dow installs markers for the direct seeding monitoring plots within the FAA tree removal area. Above

right: NWRA Restoration Ecologist Rob Taylor hand scatters seeds of endangered Solanum nelsonii into an experimental plot. Native Plant Nursery Operations Nursery production was lower than usual for the month of October due to the crew transition period. With a focus on training, rather than mass production, volunteers and interns collected primarily native grass/sedge species and the shrubs naupaka and Popolo, species that have a fall collection window. In the greenhouse, David Dow (Kupu propagation specialist) trained volunteers in propagation from seed and by cutting and root division, with a focus on the coastal grass, Sporobolus virginicus (SPOVIR) and our two native vine species, Ipomoea pes-caprae (IPOPES) and Ipomoea indica (IPOIND). Ipomoea indica is not frequently propagated here, but we are starting batches of this plant because it can grow over piles of downed ironwood. Because plans to burn the thousands of ironwoods in the FAA tree clearing area fell through, we have many large piles of ironwoods that will be on the landscape for years to come. Other areas where ironwoods have been piled and left to decompose in situ have turned out to provide ideal habitat for noxious weeds. Weed control in ironwood piles is difficult and sometimes dangerous, so our hope is that we can encourage IPOIND to grow around and over the new ironwood piles, shading out invasives and hastening decomposition of the ironwoods. In the protocol and data management departments, Meg completed reviews and final edits of the Midway plant propagation protocols written by former propagation specialist volunteer, Nai de Gracia. Adapting existing protocols to the unique environment and nursery facilities of Midway, as well as pioneering many of her own methods, Nai left a great legacy of 19 protocols that detail the entire process of native plant propagation, starting with where, when, and how to collect propagules, how to pot them, what size pot and potting medium to use, as well as images of the target plant (the ideal size, vigor, and form of a nursery plant that indicates to managers when it is ready to be out-planted). Rob Taylor is now working with David Dow to get the Midway protocols formatted for publication on the RNGR (Reforestation, Nurseries, and Genetics Resources) propagation database. Posting our methods to this on-line, open access site will allow other Pacific Islands restoration practitioners to benefit from our efforts on Midway. Rob has also made significant strides towards a functional and integrated greenhouse inventory tracking system. This has been an elusive task because it requires following the fate of every unique batch of plants (and accompanying data on all the variables we record, such as propagation method) from the moment it is potted until it is out-planted in the field. This is much more difficult than it sounds because plants are commonly moved three times between potting to out-planting because each facility (greenhouse, shadehouse, hardening area) is appropriate for a specific stage of plant development. At every step of the way, a batch typically gets smaller as failed plants are culled. Finally, when plants are ready to be out-planted, batches often become divided as plants are distributed to different restoration sites, all of which have unique site conditions that influence the success of the out-planting and further complicate restoration site monitoring. Because there are so many variables to manage and adapt from seed to outplant site and beyond, detailed but achievable documentation of our efforts is essential for understanding and improving outcomes.

Rob has created user-friendly Excel spreadsheets that link to effort trackers, protocols, inventories, and photo monitoring points to each other within the volunteer drive. These are already functioning to help Refuge biology staff track monthly efforts in propagation and out-planting (see tables below), but the final step in this evolution is to create a fully-integrated relational database. This is something which can only be done with Microsoft Access and for this Rob has been regularly working with Erin Stockenberg, Region 1 I+M Data Manager. We thank Rob for all his efforts and the R1 Inventory and Monitoring program for supporting Midway’s restoration projects. One of Rob’s other major accomplishments for the month of October was completion of a comprehensive MANWR plant list. For the first time, all previous botany surveys (from 1902 to 2015) have been compiled and organized into one comprehensive plant list (and database) that includes first and last recorded sightings on Midway, links to USDA species profiles, the plant’s status (native or exotic), and native status. Having one reliable and current plant list will serve as a building block to future plant management projects, such as assessment and prioritization of weed species. Refuge biology staff are working with Rob to provide feedback on database operation and ensure that no plants were missed.

Biology volunteer Beth Wolff collects seeds of the native sedge Fimbristylis cymosa from an abandoned runway on Sand Island.

Monthly total seeds collected and processed: 259.13 g Solanum nelsonii (SOLNEL) 33.23 g Lepidium bidentatum (LEPBID) 168.27 g Ipomoea pes-capre (IOPPES) 629.62 g Scaveola taccada (SCATAC) 2 buckets Cyperus polystachyos (CYPPOL) 0.10 g Eragrostis paupera (ERAPAU) Date Species Quantity Collection Site 10/1/16 SOLNEL 4.50 g Hale Honu 10/6/16 LEPBID 14.45 g Ash Island 10/10/16 IPOPES 38.60 g Rusty Bucket 10/14/16 LEPBID 18.78 g Ash Island 10/11/16 CYPPOL 2 buckets Gash 10/21/16 SOLNEL 231.6 g Hale Honu 10/18/16 ERAPAU 0.10 g Shade house 10/25/16 SCATAC 95.92 g Hale Honu 10/21/16 SOLNEL 4.97 g Spit 10/27/16 SOLNEL 13.23 g Ash Island 10/27/16 SOLNEL 4.83 g Ash Island 10/28/16 SCATAC 533.7 g Rusty Bucket 10/28/16 IPOPES 129.67 g Rusty Bucket

Nursery Total Plants started: 316 Date Species CropID Quantity Seed/cutting Pot type Location Source 10/26/16 FIMCYM 16077 62 Seed 4” Greenhouse Seed Lib. 10/27/16 SPOVIR 16079A 59 Rooted

cutting 6” Greenhouse Cable

House 10/27/16 SPOVIR 16079B 38 Rooted

cutting 6” Greenhouse Clipper

House 10/27/16 SPOVIR 16079C 33 Rooted

cutting 6” Greenhouse Brackish

Pond 10/28/16 IPOIND 16080 69 Rooted

cutting 4” Greenhouse Ball field

10/31/16 IPOPES 16081 55 Seed Coir pot Greenhouse Seed Lib. Out-planted total: 373 pots (below out-plantings completed by the DBSI/NFWF Habitat Technicians as part of the Verbesina eradication project). No volunteer-led out-plantings occurred in October due to the training schedule and existing outplant maintenance needs. Date Species Quantity Location 10/29/16 Eragrostis variablis 319 Sector 27N Building Demo site 10/29/16 Chenopodium oahuensis 45 Sector 27N Building Demo site 10/29/16 Boerhavia repens 9 Sector 27N Building Demo site Seabird Monitoring The first returning black-footed albatross was sighted on October 19th and the season’s first Laysan albatross was seen on October 27th. Albatross density has been increasing daily since that time. Planning for 11th season of the albatross demographic study, a collaborative project between Pacific Islands Refuges, the Regional Inventory and Monitoring Program, the Bird Banding Lab (USGS), and the Regional Migratory Birds and Habitat Program, is underway. When the other study sites across the breeding range of our North Pacific albatrosses closed due to budget and staffing cuts, Midway remained the only location where field work for this project continues and the significance of the data we collect here is higher than ever. Field data collection primarily involves band resighting in established plots and each year the project yields thousands of data points, with significant office time required for data entry, proofing, and file management. The Refuge Biology program at Midway has long supported the project, but with competing invasive species and habitat management needs, the need to streamline and update data collection practices became a high priority last year. To meet this need, Roberta Swift, our regional seabird biologist and a major supporter of seabird research on Midway, wrote and received a Science Support Partnership grant to fund the development of a field data collection application for use on field-ready tablet computers. This will allow the Midway team to digitally collect data in the field and load the data directly onto banding schedules and project files, by-passing the cumbersome computer data entry process and cutting down proofing time. With the input of all the project collaborators and Midway staff, the application has also been carefully engineered to minimize data recording errors as much as possible. In October we participated in several rounds of review and comments of an online draft of the tablet software to ensure that it would meet the needs of the Midway crew. If all continues as planned, the tablets will be ready to ship by the end the November and arrive in time for the crew to field-test the tablets this season.

Invasive vertebrate control

• Cattle egret control efforts continued through October. All previously detected nest sites were visited on October 12 and 27 to addle viable eggs and ensure that previously treated eggs had not hatched. The breeding season was clearly winding down with most of the summer’s nests abandoned by the middle of the month.

• On October 25, the mouse eradication feasibility team arrived to Midway to work with Refuge biology staff and

Managers to understand the social, biological, and abiotic factors that would influence the operations and potential success of a mouse eradication. The eradication feasibility study is funded through the Region 1 Invasive Species Control Program, with in-kind donations from Island Conservation, an NGO whose mission is invasive species eradications from islands, with primary expertise in rodent eradications. The team consisted of Gregg Howald, Chad Hanson, and Pete McClelland of Island Conservation, along with Beth Flint, USFWS Supervisory Wildlife Biologist based in the Honoulu office, and Jonathan Sprague, USFWS Fish and Wildlife Biologist of the Pacific Islands Field Station. More details about the team’s activities and findings will be reported in the November update. Sneak preview: mouse eradication IS feasible, but it’s going to be difficult.

• Biology staff and volunteers continued to check the Good Nature traps placed strategically around Sand Island following this summer’s possible rat re-introduction. No rats were found under the traps and no evidence or sightings of rats have been recorded as of this writing.

Laysan duck management We transitioned to a new seep check protocol in October, with regular checks of all constructed ponds and guzzlers done just once per week (down from twice per week), a less conservative approach appropriate for the non-botulism season (October-May) when cases are rare. The new protocol is based on our analysis of all confirmed and suspected botulism cases from August 2008 to June 2016. We thank the staff of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center which, over the years, has necropsied hundreds of dead ducks from Midway. Without their reports, many cases would have remained unconfirmed and we would have lowered confidence in the trends. Because we had such a robust dataset, however, clear patterns in time of year and incidence of successive botulism cases emerged, allowing us to adapt our seep check frequency in a way that will save hundreds of hours of crew time, but should still detect an epizootic event if one occurred. Three dead ducks were found in October, two hatch year birds and one duckling. None were suspected to have died of botulism as our on-site carcass inspection indicated evidence of trauma and/or starvation. The volunteers spent one afternoon in late October removing algae from one of the ponds constructed to provide Laysan duck habitat. This is a recurring maintenance need because the stagnant water conditions, solar input, and high nutrient levels provide ideal conditions for large-scale algal growth. The algae must be periodically removed to avoid even higher water temperatures (which enhances botulism production) and to limit entanglement risks to ducks.

Biology volunteers (left to right) Miki’ala Taylor, Michelle Smith, and Beth Wolff manually remove algae from Ballfield Seep, one of

the constructed ponds on Sand Island. Biology Volunteer Program Monthly Activity Balance