Download Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Blackwater National
Wildlife Refuge
Climate Change: The Impact of Sea Level Rise
Refuges set aside as a network of habitats to preserve native
wildlife and their habitats
 Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
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◦ Part of Chesapeake Marshlands NWR Complex
◦ Established 1933
◦ Approx. 28.000 acres
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Tidal marsh
Mixed hardwood and loblolly pine forest
Managed freshwater impoundments
Croplands
◦ Important resting and feeding area for migrating and wintering waterfowl
 Atlantic Flyway
◦ Supports one of the highest concentrations of nesting bald eagles on
Atlantic coast
◦ Largest endemic population of endangered Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrels
◦ 82, 163 visitors in 2011
 Hunting and fishing
 Non-Consumptive (recreation)
◦ Pedestrian, auto tour, boat trail, bicycle, interpretation, photography
Blackwater National Wildlife
Refuge

Established 1933
◦ 1/3 marsh, 1/3 forest, 1/3 water
 Freshwater impoundments, brackish tidal wetlands, open fields and
mixed evergreen and deciduous forests
 Salinity
◦ Fresh – near zero
◦ Brackish water – 0.5 to 35 ppt (parts per thousand)
◦ Ocean – average 35 ppt
◦ Fed by Blackwater and Little Blackwater Rivers
◦ Tannins in peat soils
◦ American Bird Conservancy
 Over 250 bird species
◦ 85 nesting songbird species
◦ 34 waterfowl species
◦ 52 shorebird species
◦ 30 marsh and wading birds
 At risk birds – saltmarsh and seaside sparrows, clapper rail and black rail
 American bald eagle
 Peregrine falcon
 Mammals
◦ Whitetail deer, sika deer, foxes, otters, raccoons
 Endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel
◦ Home-interface – marshes, borders of mixed pines and hardwood forests
Blackwater National Wildlife
Refuge
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Mid-Atlantic – faces greatest increase in US
◦ Towson University Inundation Model 2006
 Dorchester County faces greatest risk
◦ Blackwater – subsidence – 12 inches in last century
(global 6 inches), 3 feet by end of 21st century
 Groundwater withdrawal for agriculture
 Less sediment accretion in marshes
 Predicted loss of tidal fresh water marsh, tidal swamp
and brackish marsh to saltwater marsh and open water
◦ Brackish marsh – rockfish, white perch, anadromous
species – herring and shad (transition from fresh to salt
water)
◦ Tidal fresh marsh – minnows, carp, sunfish, crappie, and
bass
 Habitat for shelter, food and spawning
Sea Level Rise
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Sediment and root growth build elevation
◦ Not keeping up with water level increase
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Wetlands – ½ Dorchester County
◦ Diverse types
◦ Two main vegetation zones
 Low marsh – flooded twice daily
◦ Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora)
 High march – irregularly flooded less than daily
◦ Salinity dependent – meadow cordgrass (Spartina
patens), spike grass (Distichlis spicata), Smooth
cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), black needlerush
(Juncus roemerianus), Olney three-square
(Scoenoplectus americanus)
◦ habitat for birds that breed only in salt marsh
Sea Level Rise
≈8000
acres lost
“Lake
Blackwater”
On average,
losing about
1 acre/day
Wetland Loss
1980s – 12 acres restored
 2003 - 8 acres restored at 3 sites
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◦ Planted 70,000 marsh grass units
◦ Water depth – needed 1 to 1.5 ft. fill
Reduce salt water intrusion
 Remove nutria
 Reduce resident Canada Geese
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Wetland Restoration
http://www.fws.gov/blackwater/kids.html
 https://www.friendsofblackwater.org/kid_r
es.html
 http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tool
s/slrviewer

Teaching Resources
Birch, Dixie, “Global Climate Change and Wetland
Loss at Blackwater NWR”, Presented at Society
for Wetlands Scientists, May 28, 2008
 “Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Habitats of the
 Chesapeake Bay”, a detailed modeling analysis
commissioned by the National Wildlife
Federation. For the full report, please visit
www.nwf.org/sealevelrise.
 Carver, E. & Caudill, J. 2013 “Banking on Nature:
The economic benefits to local communities of
national wildlife refuge visitation.” Division of
Economics, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Washington DC.

Sources