Wetlands for Waterfowl

California Megadrought

NWNL  Why are water birds important? Why should we care? That relates to the duck to smell [ph], and you know how the farmers feel about them. So explain to viewers why we should care about our waterfowl. 

KIM FORREST  I think people should care about waterfowl, water birds, geese and cranes and the shore birds, because they’re very inspirational.  They move in tremendously large flocks.  They’re awe-inspiring when you see those birds.  They’re fascinating.  There’s not much that gets you more connected with nature than massive flocks of pintails flying over the marsh at sunset — or the sound of cranes just after dark, thousands of sandhill cranes.

When you look at a shallow wetland in the springtime, it can have 20 different species of shore birds you know are migrating to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula or in the fall to southern Argentina. It’s just mindboggling what these birds can do  I’m very cognizant of the fact that the American people own this National Wildlife Refuge.  I work for them; it’s their refuge; and so we do everything possible, since it’s the American people who own this place. These water projects belong to the people of the U.S. and California. It’s up to them where that water goes.

NWNL  How do we message that more clearly? How do we make this have power, because it is ours? It’s our land, and you talked about the inspiration. How do we better message the value and security of knowing that this water and this land is out there? 

KIM FORREST  Getting the word out to Americans is very difficult, especially urban users. The Fish and Wildlife Service has a new outreach program for people in big cities, and especially children, A lot of public money is being sent to urban refuges, like Long Island Refuge, San Francisco Bay Refuge, San Diego Refuge. We’re fortunate to have been able to build this visitor center with economic stimulus money. When we designed it, we designed it for all ages., and can now have a summertime youth program for a dozen kids at a time. That’s a lot.  Then we try to work them into summer jobs. So we’re cultivating people from the time they’re very young. We’re also trying to make our refuges less restrictive, more family-friendly and inspiring to children. 

NWNL  You talked about the Kamchatka Peninsula and the migratory birds’ astoundingly inspiring route… Does that inspire your visitors? 

KIM FORREST  Yes, birds that move through here impact humans and have for millennia. To see 10,000 pintail ducks flying into a wetland at sunset and hear the whistling of their wings is pretty jaw-dropping, as is listening to the sound of thousands of sandhill cranes at sunrise, or the swooping and diving of a flock of shore birds being chased by a falcon. Children especially remember these scenes for the rest of their lives, and that leads to healthier lives – more stable and sound, both mentally and physically. It helps children form who they are and find who they are. 

NWNL  Do the children grasp the wonder of bird’s migratory paths? 

KIM FORREST  Bird routes are some of the most amazing things, if you can wrap your head around them. We have birds move through here that have flown down from the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, the Bering Sea and the boreal forest of northern Canada, … all extremely important bird nurseries. 

Many birds live across a gigantic swathe of the globe. There are shore birds that will fly a migration route of 4,000 miles without stopping.  This San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge was established for Aleutian Canada geese that were almost extinct in the mid ‘70s. They will fly nonstop from the Aleutian Islands, where they breed, across the Pacific Ocean to Northern California and Oregon, and fly down to this part of California.  There’s pretty astonishing, and why they need the fuel in our wetlands for their flight back.

NWNL  What would happen to this refuge and those birds if there were no water allotments? 

KIM FORREST  If there were gaps in the wet links in this migration chain down through the center of California, the chain would be broken. Birds would continue to fly that route, not find much water, and be crowded onto smaller and smaller wetlands. There would then be disease outbreaks among hungry birds. As with humans, disease spreads when birds are crowded, and big die-offs gradually cause bird populations to decline, as it already has over the last couple hundred years. There’s nothing today like the birds we had at the turn of the last century. 

Fortunately, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and private wetland owners have put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get by with what we have, and we’ve continued to do that year after year. Those people should be honored. 

NWNL  I think it’s partnership that will create win-win solutions.  

KIM FORREST  Together we can foster common goals. We also work with and honor other federal and other state agencies like the California Department of Water Resources and the Grassland Water District, which represents the local waterfowl hunters here in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy…. There are a lot of entities pulling together to maximize what we can do with what we have. We also work with universities and other local universities, and American Rivers.  

Since we’re strung out along the San Joaquin River, we’re lacking floodplain habitat for smolts and fry – the little baby fish –  to grow. On these real wide floodplains where the water is shallow. slow and maybe a little warmer, we get blossoms of explosions of bugs and invertebrates that allow these little fish just grow explosively. Because they become very big very fast, they’re able to survive the migration out to the ocean and life in the ocean. So we’re looking at two of our refuges as floodplain habitat for salmon American Rivers and Ducks Unlimited, and Trout Unlimited are partnering with us, and a couple universities.  

NWNL  We’ve also partnered with American Rivers. In March, their director Amy Kober directing me to different places for drought documentation, and specifically giving me directions to San Mateo where the San Joaquin River is drying up. One of my photos from there ended up on their cover this year since they have named the San Joaquin River as the most endangered river in the US. I think the work that they’re doing is very strong.  

KIM FORREST  A consortium of people like that brings many different talents to the table, and so it makes an even stronger partnership. 

NWNL  No Water No Life was moving along and fulfilling its Mission by documenting watersheds. Then, we began to develop partnerships, and became much stronger! 

I came from a “Do it yourself” ethos. Develop your thesis. Write your paper. Hand it in. But educators now emphasize teamwork. I saw that with my daughters. I’m still not used to it, but I’ve learned its advantages. So NWNL works with great partners, which means many more ideas and expanded energy are swirling around on the table now, so that’s good. 

KIM FORREST  And different strengths, different talents. We may not be able to go after a grant that’s only for state and local or NGOs, because we’re federal, but we can do something else, so bring different things to the table. It makes a bigger whole. The sum is greater than the parts, I guess. 

NWNL  Yes, a project can be like a snowflake: pretty vulnerable by itself, but when you put a lot of snowflakes together, you’ve got a blizzard – or perhaps an avalanche. 

My last question, which I ask everybody, is how did you get involved in watershed conservation? 

KIM FORREST  I think about the next generation, I think about my very privileged upbringing. When I grew up, we spent a month every summer in the backcountry of Yosemite packing with mules to the middle of no place. The packer would drop off five mules full of stuff, and then come back a month later and pick us up. For the rest of the summer, my mother would take my sister and I back to our family farm in Iowa that’s been in our family for 160 years. In the winter, we went skiing up around Lake Tahoe. And I grew up in Monterey. So it’s hard not to be inspired growing up in places like that. 

NWNL  Thank you very much for your time and your thoughts, Kim. And thank you for your inspiring messages! Enjoy your waterfowl!