Wildlife Comeback Hall of Fame

What wildlife comebacks have you seen in the Chesapeake region – or in your own back yard? Send Bay Daily your stories, and photos, too, if you have them.

We often hear about the decline of oysters and blue crabs in the Bay, and the disappearance of Atlantic sturgeon and other magnificent creatures. It’s important to wrestle with these realities – because otherwise we can’t solve the problems of pollution, development and exploitation that can put wildlife in peril.

But focusing on the destruction can also bum you out.  And, more importantly, often the scientific reality is more complex than a simple downward line.

I bring all this up because of an email that my colleague John Page Williams, senior naturalist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, wrote to me in response to my February 4 blog on the declining number of tundra swans wintering in the Chesapeake Bay. The numbers of fallen by about a third over the past 35 years, as pollution has killed underwater grasses that the swans eat.

John Page agreed with the overall trend. But he also offered a hopeful story about how improved water quality helped a specific river – the Severn north of Annapolis, Md. – regain some of its underwater grasses and tundra swans.  He suspects improved shoreline protections (from Maryland’s so called “Critical Areas” law) helped reduce excessive development and polluted runoff.

"When I first moved to Annapolis in 1973, the Severn River hosted nearly a thousand tundra swans each winter. There was lots of underwater grass in the river to feed them from late November till late February. Watching them on the river and listening to their 'songs' made winter a wonderful time.

In the 1980's, the Severn endured a lot of construction, including both houses and roads. Cloudy water from sediment and algae blooms from nitrogen pollution killed the grasses. At first, the swans returned but then, with no food, they had to leave. By the late '80s, they skipped the Severn altogether.

In 1994, the underwater grasses began coming back. It's difficult to prove cause and effect, but shoreline protection from the Critical Area Act was certainly a positive factor. Since then, the grass beds have grown thick and diverse... And yes, the tundra swans have come back. At first there were only a dozen or so, but gradually they have increased until there are about 170 of them here now. Watching them in winter is almost as much fun as fishing for the Severn's chain pickerel, which have also come back from a low spot in the '80s (they too are grass-dependent)....Yes, this is a small-scale comeback, but it's a good example of how resilient the Bay ecosystem can be when we give it a chance."

Thanks, John Page.  

Readers of Bay Daily, what other comebacks have you seen at the end of your fishing pier, or in the woods at the end of your street?  The examples don't have to be on the water -- they could be in  Virginia's Shenandoah Valley or Pennsylvania's coal country or wherever. 

I personally have observed five examples.  Maybe if you send in your stories, we can work up a Wildlife Comeback Hall of Fame. I'll include your pictures and names, if you want them posted.

1) BALD EAGLES. When I went kayaking in the Blackwater Wildlife Preserve on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in October, I was stunned to see at least three of the majestic birds soaring overhead or perched on the branches of loblolly pine trees. Nationally, bald eagle populations have risen dramatically, in part because of the banning of the pesticide DDT.

2) OSPREY.  These fishing birds, like bald eagles, were nearly wiped out by DDT. But after the federal government banned the chemical in 1972, populations have soared to more than 2,000 nesting pairs in the Chesapeake – one of the largest concentrations in the world.  Several nest in the trees right behind CBF’s headquarters in Annapolis. Their shrieks are impossible to miss.

3) STRIPED BASS.  Striped bass numbers in the Chesapeake Bay multiplied after a moratorium on fishing them was imposed from 1985 to 1990. They are now so numerous, in fact, that some fishermen blame the struggles of other species (like shad and blue crabs) on the appetite of the rockfish. Poaching striped bass has recently become front-page news. But hopefully the federal government’s crackdown on the "fishing pirates" will keep illegal netting from undermining the comeback.

4) BARRED OWLS.  These nocturnal predators (also called "hoot owls") were never really endangered, but they were driven out of many urban and suburban areas because of a lack of big trees for nesting and prey (such as crayfish).  However, over the last 20 years, surveys of bird populations have suggested that barred owl numbers have risen about 20 percent in Maryland.  And in my part of urban Baltimore, these deep-woods birds are now being heard yammering and screeching like insane monkeys at night.  Barred owls have been lured back into the city by the rebuilding of the Stony Run stream in my Evergreen neighborhood of Baltimore. The rebuilding created pools of water and triggered an explosion in the number of crayfish, which attracted the owls.

5) BLACK BEARS.  Black bears were nearly eliminated in Maryland and other parts of the Chesapeake region by hunting and the cutting down of forests for farms in the 19th century. But then a ban on hunting, and the reversion of many small family farms back to woods, allowed the black bear populations to rise from about 12 in Maryland in 1950 to more than 600 today.  They grew so numerous (and subdivisions spread so far into the wilderness) that they began raiding trash cans like raccoons -- and so Maryland resumed its black bear hunt in 2004. I remember interviewing a family in Western Maryland that watched a black bear break into their kitchen, grab their refrigerator (brimming with freshly cut bacon) and wrestle the whole darn fridge outside.

What wild animal comebacks have you seen in your neighborhood?

(Photo credits, from top: Robert Ampula, Nikki Davis, Richard Dumont, Yuri Huta, Getty Images, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources)

Comments

[Surrick]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has successfully reintroduced peregrine falcons.

MD and PA (I think) have had a successful trap and transplant program for otters.

MD has re-established wild turkey populations across the state (they were only in the western counties).

Efforts are underway to re-establish sturgeon populations.

[John Page Williams]

Certainly the oyster comeback in the Lynnhaven River is one. In general, and there in particular, healthy restoration reefs have been great assets for fish and crabs (and anglers too!). I have a fishing friend on the Elizabeth River who can attest to that fact.

Ditto underwater grasses on the Susquehanna Flats.

[MarIANNE m. tAYLOR]

We need to report the small 'comeback" sights ...Just recently, we spotted peregrine falcon and bald eagles flying over North. Ferry point in Pasadena...River clarity is great this Winter.... Magothy River people are forming additional sub-committees of the MRA to address river concerns, to educate our neighbors, to form lobbying groups, to set up informational tributary web sites specific to the Magothy. Your Bay blogs and info -structures are so helpful...Thanks so much. Marianne Taylor