Bayou Buzz Volume 2, Issue II March-May, 2016

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1 Bayou Buzz Volume 2, Issue II March-May, th Annual Celebrate the Gulf Inside this issue: Research Focus 2 Botany Zone 2 Critter Corner 3 Looking Ahead 3 Meet Our Staff 4 Visit Us 4 State of Our Coast 5 From Our Director 5 Grand Bay NERR is a statefederal partnership with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office for Coastal Management. We are one of 28 NERRs nationwide. Below: participants enjoy the photo booth. The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) partnered with Art in the Pass and, for the first time, The Environmental Protection Agency s (EPA) Waterfest, to present the 26th Annual Celebrate the Gulf Marine Education Festival. This year s event was record breaking with 31 booths aimed at educating the public about the environmental and marine resources that we have on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Booths included, The Environmental Education Center s traveling Raptor Roadshow, Leave No Trace, Mississippi Power s Green Machine, and even a photo booth! For the second year running, MDMR held a poster contest where the public was invited to draw, paint, or sketch a poster depicting conservation, resources, or scenic qualities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This year s poster winner was Long Beach High s Grace Bennett. Her painting depicts marine life found in the Gulf. Grace Bennett and her winning poster. In addition to the festival, there was also the Junior Fishing Rodeo which was held that morning and sponsored by the Coastal Conservation Association. The Biloxi Schooner also provided boat rides along the coast to festival goers. A huge thank you to all sponsors, organizers, volunteers and participants! Left: A participant enjoys a word search activity at the Grand Bay NERR booth; Above: Event Coordinator, Jen Buchanan (right) and her daughter Katy (left).

2 P a ge 2 B a you B u zz V olume 2, I s s u e I I Research Focus: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Invasive Chinese Tallow, Triadica sebifera The Grand Bay NERR Coastal Training Program hosted a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point workshop to help land managers, representatives from Jackson County Utility Authority, Master Naturalists, and conservationists evaluate their work operations as well as recreational activities to identify ways that they may be contributing to the spread of invasive species. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) planning is a management tool that provides a structured method to identify risks and focus procedures in natural resource activities. Understanding how invasive spread, developing plans to reduce that spread, and preventing biological contamination are necessary for avoiding the unintended spreading of invasive species. By using practical examples with everyday work situations, the workshop participants learned the HACCP process and how to develop plans to identify and control the pathways that are aiding the spread of invasive species. During the workshop, they developed HACCP plans, based on their real-life every day work situations so they can go back to work and immedi- Invasive Feral Hogs, Sus scrofa. Credit: NPS Botany Zone: Longleaf Milkweed ately put it into action. Invaisive Cogongrass, Imperata cylindrica Seventeen people attended the two day workshop which was taught by Jonathan Thompson, Senior Environmental Scientist for the California State Lands Commission s Marine Invasive Species Program, and David Britton, Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator for the Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Both of these instructors are seasoned professionals when it comes to reducing the unintentional spreading of invasive species during routine activities. The longleaf milkweed, Asclepias longifolia, is a native milkweed of the southeast United States common to pine savannas and wetlands. These habitats are perfect conditions for these important flowers to grow since they love having wet soil with plenty of sunlight. Milkweeds will remain dormant in the soil throughout the winter. In spring, basal leaves will pop up out of the ground sending up a long slender stem up to 3 feet tall! This stem will be able to support the white and purple flowers that bloom. Milkweed species are extremely important flowers to our ecosystem as they are the only host plant for the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae. The butterfly will lay its eggs on the leaves of the milkweed. Once hatched, the larvae will feed on the leaves of the plant and then form its cocoon. These plants are an integral part of the monarch s great migration. Come out for yourself and find these beautiful plants and much more today!

3 B a you B u zz V olume 2, I s s u e I I P a ge 3 Critter Corner: Southern Leopard Frog The southern leopard frog, Lithobates sphenocephala, is one of the more common frogs found on the Reserve. These beautiful medium sized frogs are brownish-green with darker spots on their backs, sides, and legs with cream to yellow colored stripes running from their mouth down their sides. Shallow freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, or permanently wet ditches are the preferred living quarters for these frogs. Southern leopard frogs are exceptional jumpers and have been recorded jumping up to 13 times their body length. They utilize these amazing long leaps to avoid predation, mostly by jumping into water and swimming down to the bottom. Looking Ahead... Breeding occurs from March to June. Clutches of several thousand eggs are laid in the shallow waters, usually attached to stems of plants. Once the tadpoles hatch, they will remain in the water for about 90 days feeding on detritus (rotting plant material) and algae. Once metamorphosed, the frogs are carnivorous and mostly nocturnal. They will eat almost any insect they can catch and fits in their mouths including spiders, earthworms, and even centipedes. They also eat large amounts of irritating insects such as mosquitos, deer and horse flies, and gnats. Above: Southern leopard frog, Lithobates sphenocephala Right: Clutch of eggs found in a retention pond at the Reserve. Dates and times are subject to change. Please see our Website or Facebook page for updates JUNE: 03-04: Batik Art Workshop 08-10: Teachers of the Estuary Workshop 14-17: Gulf of Mexico Alliance Annual Meeting 17: Friday Kayaking JULY: 15: Friday Kayaking 25-27: Statistics R Workshop (SEP continued) 16-17: Bug Fest, Picayune, MS 24: National Estuaries Day OCTOBER: 15: Coastal Cleanup NOVEMBER: 14-18: NERRs National Meeting 30-DEC 1: Bays and Bayous Conference Above: A beautiful live oak on the Oak Grove Birding Trail. Photo by: Pamela Rupert, Heartbeat Photo AUGUST: 19: Friday Kayaking SEPTEMBER: 9: Friday Kayaking 12: Science Communication Workshop For more information on events, visit our website at Call us at (228) Or check out our Facebook!

4 P a ge 4 B a you B u zz V olume 2, I s s u e I I Meet our Staff: Holland Lamier Meet Grand Bay NERR s Resource Specialist, Holland Lamier. Holland assists in both the Coastal Training Program and Education Program through planning and implementing programs. She helps with the K-12 education activities, training workshops, and public events all while managing social media networking and website updates. She also coordinates Kayaking Eco-tours through the marshes surrounding the NERR. Occasional field work will also keep Holland busy during the year. Holland holds a B.S. in Marine Biology through the University of Southern Mississippi. While at USM, she was able to spend a summer semester studying at the Gulf Coast Research Lab where she gained hands on experience with the natural resources of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Prior to joining the Grand Bay NERR, Holland spent 5 years as a Fisheries Biologist contractor at NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service located in Pascagoula, MS. She spent lots of time offshore on research vessels trawling and longlining to gain data for population density studies. In her spare time, Holland enjoys kayaking, hiking, and backpacking with her husband and two dogs. Come out and meet Holland today! Have You Visited Lately? Learn what it really means to live life on the edge by visiting the Grand Bay NERR today! Ask for a tour of the building and learn how we received our Gold LEED Standard Award for being green. Don t forget to say hi! to Tobi the Terrapin before you leave! Interpretive Center Hours: Monday through Friday 9 am 3 pm Citrine forktail damselfly resting on a blade of grass at the NERR. Photo by Cathy Imson Quench your thirst for outdoor adventure by hiking the Oak Grove Birding Trail. You ll see birds, butterflies, and lots of other animals that frequent the area. What will you spot? Make sure to put it on our sightings board at the Interpretive Center! Cool off with a visit to the Interpretive Center located in our Coastal Resource Center. Inside you can learn about everything an estuary has to offer. You ll learn about everything from wildlife, weather, and wildfires, to the culture and history of the area!

5 P a ge 5 B a you B u zz V olume 2, I s s u e I I Second Annual State of Our Coast The Second Annual State of Our Coast conference sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) was held on May 11 at the Golden Nugget Casino located in Biloxi. Topics included eco -tourism, shrimping, public health concerns about seafood and beach closures, artificial reefs, the Port of Gulfport, Ingalls shipbuilding, red snapper trip and catch reporting, and even a legislative board that focused on the Coast s impact on the rest of the state and the coastal recovery. The 2016 red snapper fishing season was also officially announced during the conference. Those dates are May 27-September 5. MDMR Executive Director, Jamie Miller gave both the opening and closing speeches for this conference. The entire conference focusing on moving forward. Director Miller stated If we re going to move Mississippi forward, we are going to have to do it together. Below: It was a full house for this year s State of the Coast conference. Photo by Chris Vignes From our Director: Dr. Ayesha Gray Dear Friends, what a wonderful experience it has been for me to watch our wet pine savanna after the fire. Every day has been some new view of the resilience and beauty of this place. On the first day, everything was gone except for blackened pines that know how to withstand the fire. The palmettos were skeletons of charred leaves; the grasses and flowers gone; the ground was black and smoldering. I saw crabs looking for toasted morsels. I saw birds undaunted by the blackness bouncing along the smoky ground. I saw bright red needles spreading from branches. The fire brought a new light, a way to look farther through the trees. The fire brought green in bursting bunches of wire grass. The green grasses grew up through the fallen red needles from the trees. I found there is a spirit in this land fire cannot touch. Deep down in the ground is a force of life that pushes through no matter how dark. It pushes the burnt tips of the wire grass up and out; the palmettos get green from the inside and push out the burnt skeleton edges. I found green grasses topped with bright yellow and black. They are like tiny quills wanting to write the story of this place in the sky. We want to tell you how we overcame, say the grasses to the sky. We want to show you how you can lose everything, see nothing but black, but still discover that you have it all. We represent the spirit of this place and we have a pen with which to write about it, they say to me. We want to say something about how all light comes from darkness and all darkness comes from light, so we will write in our cursive script in the sky, as the wind blows us. We will write this story in the air, where perhaps no one sees it to read, but we will write it anyway. We are the quills that lay in the burnt soil, but are pushed out from the green within. We are ready to say: growing is not a choice, it is a process. These grasses want you to know, and me to know, that even at the darkest moments when everything seems destroyed there is still a spirit in you that cannot be extinguished. There is a spirit that will grow and thrive even when it seems like there is nothing left. This blade of wire grass, this quill formed in the fire, this metaphor for a pen and thought and vision that can write a story in the blue sky, is created from the green within and it is my inspiration today. I am inspired by these small things because we can learn from this place. We learn everything that survives grows even when we don t want it to, and even when we think we can t. There is an unstoppable force within us, just like in this land, and it will give us beauty, flowers and a lush savanna of a million shades of green. Come by and see this place, stand alone in it for a moment, see how it feels, and see what it says to you. I think, just like me, you ll be amazed.

6 Contact Us Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve 6005 Bayou Heron Road Moss Point, MS Grand Bay NERR Newsletter: Bayou Buzz Phone: Office hours: M-F 8am-4pm Interpretive Center Hours: M-F 9am-3pm We re on the Web! Visit GrandBayNERR.org Address for Mailing Follow us on: The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) was designated in 1999 as part of a system of 28 reserves around the nation. We are a state-federal partnership managed by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration s Office for Coastal Management. This NERR is co-located with a USFWS National Wildlife Refuge. The Grand Bay NERR is comprised of approximately 18,000 acres of pine savannas, salt marshes, salt pannes, open water and bayous, as well as other terrestrial habitats that are unique to the coastal zone. Come visit us! Can t wait to see y all!