· S.D. Parks and Wildlife Foundation Elects New Board
· Bird Banding Milestone at Farm Island Nature Area
S.D. Parks and Wildlife Foundation Elects New Board
PIERRE, S.D.--The South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation elected officers for 2008 at its annual board meeting in Pierre. Officers elected for 2008 are: Kitty Kinsman, Rapid City, president; Ev Hoyt, Rapid City, vice president; and Jay Frink, Beresford, secretary/treasurer.
The board also recognized past board members Bob DeMersseman of Rapid City and Ron Schreiner of Pierre for their dedication and service.
Other board members include: Morris Radack of Yankton, Nettie Myers of Sioux Falls, Tom Lillibridge of Bonesteel, Duane Thurow of Aberdeen, Brian Boyer of Custer, Dick Behl of Scotland and Ken Barker of Belle Fourche. Ex-officio members of the board include Jeff Vonk of Pierre, secretary of the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department and Dick Brown of Custer, representing the Game, Fish and Parks Commission.
During the past year, the foundation completed fund-raisers for a new education annex at the Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve near North Sioux City and a 3.2 mile extension of the 109-mile, George S. Mickelson Trail, linking Custer to Custer State Park. Both projects were dedicated earlier in 2007. The foundation and its partners provided or raised funds for these projects over a period of several years. Both of these projects are now a part of Game, Fish and Parks park system.
During 2008, the foundation expects to begin working with partners to raise funds for the new outdoor learning center in Rapid City. The center would provide classrooms and other spaces dedicated to environmental education and related activities and would also provide offices and support facilities for Wildlife Division staff of the Game, Fish and Parks Department. The center will be patterned after the successful Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls which attracts thousands of users, students and visitors each year.
The South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage support from the private and public sectors for the enhancement and protection of our state’s natural resources for parks and wildlife and to provide recreational opportunities for the people of South Dakota and their guests.
The foundation is involved in supporting a number of wildlife and recreation programs throughout the state including Fort Sisseton restoration and programming, The Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, and other projects that support wildlife, parks or associated recreational activities. The foundation has also worked with landowners, such as Mary and Maude Adams, to leave a legacy of land which can be developed into state parks, recreation areas or game production areas.
Anyone seeking additional information about the foundation or wishing to make a donation can call (605) 773-4503 or visit the foundation’s Web site at: http://www.parkswildlifefoundation.org.
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Bird Banding Milestone at Farm Island Nature Area
PIERRE, S.D.--October 10, 2007, was a special day at Farm Island State Recreation Area near Pierre. That was the day S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department wildlife biologists banded their 10,000th bird.
The milestone bird was a male ruby-crowned kinglet, a diminutive but energetic species that breeds in spruce forests of the Black Hills and migrates through the rest of South Dakota. The species is named for the brilliant ruby crown of the male, which is hard to see unless you have the bird in hand.
The species breeds mainly in Canada and parts of the western United States, with most wintering in the southern U.S. and Mexico. This individual weighed a hefty 7.4 grams, equivalent to less than one-third of an ounce, and he had substantial fat deposits, a critical feature for a bird in the middle of a continental migration.
Biologists with Game, Fish and Parks’ Wildlife Diversity Program have banded birds at the Farm Island Nature Area since 1993. A second site in the Pierre area, located in the Oahe Downstream Recreation Area, was added in 2004.
Banding under a federal permit, the banders set up and monitor mist nets each weekday morning during spring and fall migrations, with most of the effort concentrated in May and September. The targets are long-distance migrants, such as warblers, vireos, sparrows, flycatchers, grosbeaks, kinglets and thrushes. Breeding birds and year-round resident birds are also captured in finely-meshed nets designed to hold birds unharmed until they are carefully removed to be identified, banded, weighed, measured and released.
Each bird receives an appropriately-sized band with a unique number. Banding information is sent to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory to help document migration patterns and longevity. Birds are sometimes recaptured either within a banding season or between years. This demonstrates the importance of habitats found in places like Farm Island or Oahe Downstream to migratory birds that spend days or weeks resting and refueling and to individual birds that return to nest at these sites each year.
The 10,000th bird happened to be captured while Eileen Dowd Stukel worked alone at the Farm Island banding site, but on most days, biologists Silka Kempema, Corey Huxoll, Doug Backlund, and volunteer Ricky Olson share banding duties at the two sites. “When we started the project, I didn’t imagine we would still be banding birds almost 15 years later,” said Dowd Stukel. “Long-term wildlife monitoring projects are rare, and we’ve been lucky to be able to continue this effort and contribute to knowledge about resident and migratory birds in central South Dakota. Maybe the next 10,000 birds will come a little faster.”
To learn more about the results of this banding effort, visit: http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/Diversity/birdbanding/index.htm.
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Cutline: This male ruby-crowned kinglet was the 10,000th bird banded by biologists working for the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department’s Wildlife Diversity Program. (GFP photo by Doug Backlund)