Ducks Unlimited Completes Habitat Monitoring Project in Louisiana
Ducks Unlimited (DU) recently completed a vegetation-monitoring project on Catahoula Lake in Louisiana. Project RECLAIM (Rehabilitating the Ecology of Catahoula Lake through Analysis and Information Management) is a cooperative effort between the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and DU to facilitate best management practices for waterfowl with limited conservation and management funds. Funding for this project was provided by Ducks Unlimited.
Catahoula Lake, located in east-central Louisiana, near Alexandria, encompasses approximately 30,000 acres of wetland habitat and is well known for its legendary status as a haven for tens of thousands of wintering waterfowl each year. Historically important to northern pintails and mallards, in recent years the lake has accounted for as much as 25 percent of the total North American population of canvasbacks. Some of the peak counts in past years have been 500,000 total ducks, including up to 250,000 pintails and 128,000 canvasbacks.
The historic plant species composition of Catahoula's lakebed vegetation has been changing at an accelerated rate largely due to man-made changes to the Lake's drainage systems. Encroachment from woody vegetation, such as willow, swamp privet, and water elm, shade out moist soil plants (i.e., chufa and millets) that naturally grow in shallow areas, and drastically reduce the amount of available foraging habitat for wintering waterfowl.
"Catahoula Lake is an extremely important wintering area for waterfowl in central Louisiana," says Hugh Bateman, DU's Director of Conservation Programs for Louisiana. "We are proud to be a partner with the LDWF in fighting a continuing battle to maintain the waterfowl foraging habitat base of the lake. Project RECLAIM represents a quantum leap forward in our ability to do just that."
DU and LDWF staff collaborated to devise a management strategy that will help control the destructive encroachment of woody vegetation. In order to facilitate a management plan, woody vegetation had to be quantified and stratified into workable classes by relative density. The objectives of Project RECLAIM were to: 1) map the densities of encroaching woody vegetation, 2) classify existing wetland vegetation types, and 3) evaluate change in woody vegetation from 1987-2003. All three objectives were accomplished using state-of-the-art remote sensing applications.
Results of this project indicate that woody vegetation density has increased approximately 20% over the last 15 years on Catahoula Lake. Natural resource managers will use the results of this project to prioritize areas for mechanical and chemical treatments, thus minimizing associated management costs and maximizing the benefits to migrating and wintering waterfowl.
"Using state-of-the-art technology to deliver a dynamic wetlands application to on-the-ground waterfowl managers makes this project a prime example of how DU uses limited conservation dollars to benefit our waterfowl resource," says Jerry Holden, DU's Manager of GIS and Remote Sensing Programs.
For more information on Project RECLAIM, visit the website (http://southern.ducks.org/RECLAIM.php) or contact Jerry Holden, Manager of GIS and Remote Sensing Programs for Ducks Unlimited (601.956.1936 or jholden@ducks.org).
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DU and LDWF staff collaborated to devise a management strategy that will help control the destructive encroachment of woody vegetation. In order to facilitate a management plan, woody vegetation had to be quantified and stratified into workable classes by relative density. The objectives of Project RECLAIM were to: 1) map the densities of encroaching woody vegetation, 2) classify existing wetland vegetation types, and 3) evaluate change in woody vegetation from 1987-2003. All three objectives were accomplished using state-of-the-art remote sensing applications.
