F R I E N D S O F T H E T A M P A B A Y N A T I O N A L W I L D L I F E R E F U G E S

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.

Friends MatterPage 1

Major staffing changes at FWS mean new faces soon to arrive while we say a fond good-bye and wish the best to those leaving.

Page 4

First Annual Trip to Egmont Key’s Magnificent Bird Sanctuary

An amazing archeological find by member and volunteer Bar-bara Fite

Page 5

Gopher tortoises thrive on Egmont Key

Fall Calendar of events--be there or be square!

A Quarterly Newsletter Summer 2013

Page 3

2013-14 Duck Stamps that support the NWR now on sale--and boy, are they Beautiful

Page 2

Cynthia Smoot, Fox Chan-nel 13 News visits Egmont Key and has much to report

Behind the Scenes: Changes at FWSby Barbara Howard, President

Tampa Bay Refuges has had many outstanding manag-ers over the years and the current ones are no excep-tion. Gisela Chapa has been a great addition to the Crystal River NWR Complex staff as the Tampa Bay Manager. She will be leaving us in September, when the Egmont Key nesting season is over, for further adven-tures in Texas. During her 3 ½ years as Tampa Bay Manager Gisela has implemented many of the big projects to make our refuges bet-ter. She coordinated with Friends for the Save Egmont Key initiative, completed phase I of the Guard

House Visitor Center on Egmont with the displays and signs installed, and removed invasive species from the Pinellas Refuges that have hampered nesting for years. We now have successful nesting on Indian Key, some-thing that hasn’t been seen for decades. She was also very instrumental in the Friends Strategic Planning ses-sions held earlier this year. Gisela is creating a document for her replacement that includes what has been accomplished and what needs to be done or continued on Egmont, Pinellas, and Pas-sage Key Refuges. This is a huge task that will offer bet-ter continuity of care for the refuges and the wildlife they protect. In addition to her milestone accomplishments, Gisela also met the everyday tasks necessary to maintain the Refuges and coordinate projects and planning with

(continued on page 3

F R I E N D S M A T T E R

2 Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.

Cynthia Smoot, the Emmy award-winning co-anchor of FOX 13's News Edge at 11, loves nature and helping Tampa Bay viewers learn about some of the interesting habitat and creatures in their own backyard.

In June, Friend's was very fortunate to have her visit and report on Egmont Key’s severe erosion and dire condition. The story aired on Jun 25 and serves as a wonderful representa-tion of what the island is experiencing. Follow this link to view the story first-hand:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/22687443/2013/06/25/the-incredible-shrinking-island#ixzz2YJSCG6LeCynthia’s report featured Egmont in its multiple roles as a national wildlife ref-uge, a state park, and home to a work-ing lighthouse and to the Tampa Bay pilots who guide ships in and out of Tampa Bay.

Positioned strategically at the mouth of Tampa Bay, Egmont Key is also a favor-ite for local boaters and a nursery for countless sea and shorebirds and sea turtles. Featured in Cynthia’s report, and speaking to the challenges from erosion at Egmont Key, were represen-tatives of FWS, the State Park, your Friends group, and Egmont Key Alli-ance. Here’s what they shared with Cynthia and her audience:

• From Gisela Chapa (FWS): Our biolo-gist did a survey last month and she esti-mates we [Egmont Key] have about 32,000 nesting pairs of birds. This essen-tial habitat for sea and shorebird nest-

ing and resting would be lost, with nothing to adequately replace it in the

densely developed Tampa Bay region.

• From Tom Watson, Assistant Park Manager: This habitat is shrinking daily. A few feet every night. A few yards every week. Palm trees are dying and littering the beaches, making it difficult for sea turtles to come ashore to lay their eggs.

• From Jim Spangler, FTBNWR and Eg-mont Key Alliance: Lots of history about the island that, to me would be a real trag-edy if it disappeared, adding that the his-tory of Fort Dade dates way back, even before the Spanish-American War. Now, many of those historic batteries are underwater. Jim pointed to a wall of sand now over his head in a few spots. It's a wall, he says, that the next storm could breach, split-ting the island in two. If Egmont Key were to be split by Mother Nature, ero-sion would speed up even faster. He added, And what we would be concerned about is that South Egmont would become like Passage Key. Passage Key's totally dis-appeared.

Cynthia’s first hand report shared what Friends and the coalition of groups sup-

porting the non-profit or-ganization Save Egmont Key have been saying: Egmont Key, a Tampa Bay treasure, is disappearing right before our eyes. The island that used to be more than 500 acres is now less than 200 acres and dwindling fast.

The solution to stabilizing Egmont Key isn't just more sand. If all goes as planned, the island will get that in January 2014 when the nearby shipping channel is dredged. In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers

has recommended Installing a giant wall of sheet pile on the northwest side of the island. FTBNWR and Save Egmont Key volunteer Dave Howard, explained to Cynthia and her audience that the combined sheet pile wall and the deposited sand can, hope-fully, slow down erosion, sending out early signals when additional sand is needed and ultimately save the island. He explained: The sheet wall would literally be buried in sand. When the top of the wall is exposed, like a red flag, we’d know it’s time to renourish. The sheet pile simply ensures that we don't lose more [of the island to erosion] than up to that piling. But with an $11 million price tag, and no congressional funding in sight, the future of Egmont Key is uncertain at best. Howard finished with this comment: I don't think there's any place that will take its place if Egmont Key goes.

For more information: http://www.saveegmontkey.com/index.html

Egmont Key: The Incredible Shrinking Islandwith Cynthia Smoot, Fox News 13

F R I E N D S M A T T E R

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc. 3

Friends. Her warm smile, demeanor, guidance, and support for our pro-jects and outreach programs helped assure that everything moved for-ward smoothly. We will truly miss her, we thank her, and we wish her the best in all of her endeavors. Another change affecting the Tampa Bay Refuges and the Crystal River NWR Complex, is the transfer of FWS Refuge Manager Michael Lusk to the 402,000 acre Okefenokee Swamp NWR in southeastern Geor-gia and northern Florida. For the past 4 years Michael has guided our Complex, instituting a number of positive changes that moved the Refuges forward while enhancing the support offered to Friends’. He recruited outstanding staff members that he then empowered to make the refuges better and is a strong sup-porter of the Save Egmont Key initia-tive. We will certainly miss him and wish him the best. Finally, Assistant Refuge Manager Boyd Blihovde has moved to Texas where he is the new manager of the Laguna Atascosa NWR. He is another outstanding manager that Michael brought on board during is tenure here. While he concentrated most of his efforts on Crystal River issues, he was able to occasionally join us in the Tampa Bay area for events and pro-jects and his assistance and support was always most helpful.As much as no one likes to see as many changes in personnel as we are, changes are inevitable, especially within the far-flung Refuge system. We look forward to meeting and working with their replacements who will, like their predecessors, take on

the challenges and successes of the Tampa Bay Refuges with excitement. Friends will be here to help in what-ever way we can – that’s what we do.

The first day of sale for the 2013-2014 U.S. Federal Duck Stamp and Junior Duck Stamp was held on June 28th at the Bass Pro Shops in Ashland, VA. The ceremonies were conducted by Jerome Ford, Assistant Director Mi-gratory Birds and USFWS. Robert Steiner and Madison Grimm, this year’s winners of the Federal Duck Stamp contest, were present. Representatives of the USFWS, USPS, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Hanover County (VA), and Bass Pro Shops partici-pated. Waterfowlers, decoy carvers, local wildlife conservation organiza-tions, philatelists and boy scouts were among the public attendees. Steiner had also won the 1998-1999 contest for a painting of a Barrow's Goldeneye and has won and been commissioned for numerous state

duck stamps including Alaska, Cali-fornia, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Florida, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, including innovative multiple subject pieces with seg-ments being used for different states.

Madison, at 6 years old, is the youngest winner of the Junior Duck Stamp competition. Her father, Adam Grimm, was the youngest Federal Duck Stamp winner for the 2000-2001 Mottled Duck stamp.

Duck Stamps extraThe last issue of Friends Matter men-tioned how important Duck Stamps are to preserving habitats for migrat-ing birds and other animals. Mem-bers Mike & Barbara Fite sent us some additional information to make it easier to purchase them. The Fites buy their stamps from the US Postal Service by going through the postal store at www.usps.com/postal or calling their toll free number 1.800.782.6724. If you are interested, you can receive a quarterly stamp catalog mailed to you from the USPS. This publication will have new, future and past stamp issues. The many different stamps available, especially the Commemora-tives is amazing.

Behind the Scenes continued

2013-14 Federal Duck Stamps

Buy Now!

S E Q U O I A C L U B

4 Nullam arcu leo, facilisis ut

Egmont Key Sanctuary Trip

Friend’s newest annual event, a boat tour of the Egmont Key NWR bird sanctuary was a great success and sold out event. Originally scheduled for June 30th, a weather delay forced it forward to July 14. Hubbard Marina’s Egmont Key Ferry with Captain Jeff and 1st Mate “Lob-ster Boy”, did a fantastic job position-ing us to have the best views of the sanctuary without disturbing the 32,000 pairs of birds and their chicks (that’s over 100,000 birds on and around the island). Ann Paul, from Audubon Florida Coastal Sanctuaries, guided us through what we were viewing. Dave Howard and Jim Igler further enlightened us on the island’s habitat and historical structures. When a quick storm came up, Cap-tain Jeff put us ashore to visit the new Guard House Visitor Center in time to keep us dry. When the rain let up, we walked to the lighthouse and then on to the Ft Dade mining casemate/storehouse and Battery Mellon to view several of the historic structures on the island. Tom Watson, State Park Ranger on Egmont Key, joined us for the land portion and transported anyone unable to navigate the uneven paths (as always, many thanks Tom!).

Back on the ferry, we watched several local fishermen in the process of land-ing a 6-7 ft Bull Shark for release. Bringing him alongside the ferry where we could get pictures of the struggle, they safely released him back to the wild (apparently we don’t have to worry about the hook--it will quickly rust and disintegrate). It was a beautiful and unexpected sight.With sunset in the offing, we toured the west side of the island for a final opportunity to view the bird sanctu-ary (and, sadly, the erosion that has taken such a serious toll on Egmont) before heading back to Ft DeSoto. Thanks to Hubbard’s Marina & Cap-tain Jeff and his First Mate. We do plan to make this an annual event, so be sure to watch your email’s for an announcement next spring. It’s sure to be another sell-out.

What a neat find...Friends’ member and volunteer, Barbara Fite enhances scientific research through a major donation

A University of Florida researcher has described a new genus and species of an extinct saber-toothed cat from Polk County, FL, based on additional fossil acquisitions of the animal over the last 25 years.The new genus and species, Rhizosmi-lodon fiteae, came from a phosphate mine during excavations in 1990. The species was named after Barbara Fite of Lutz, who in 2011 donated one of the critical specimens used for the new de-scription and allowed UF scientists to make casts of two other partial jaws in her collection. The donation was a major contribution to research. The remarkably well-preserved lower jaw contains almost pristine examples of all three chewing teeth. The genus name Rhizosmilodon, meaning “root of Smilodon,” implies the animal could be a missing link and direct ancestor of Smilodon, which be-came extinct about 11,000 years ago.

Live! Birds of PreyA WildNite Nature Talk with Gabe Vargo

When: Thursday, August 8, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.Where: Guy Harvey Outpost, 6000 Gulf Blvd, St Pete BeachWhat: Get an up-close view of the Wild Avian Ambassadors from St. Petersburg’s Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Gabe Vargo shares interesting information and fascinating facts about rap-tors’ natural history and basic ecology, adaptations, and the key role they play in our ecosys-tem. Reservations: Leave a message with name and number attending at 727 343-1272 or email Friends@TampaBayRefuges.org.

F R I E N D S M A T T E R

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc. 5

Board of DirectorsBarb Howard — President/TreasurerSid Crawford — Vice PresidentJoyce Galiardo — Secretary

Directors: Dave Howard, Martha Gruber, Janica Johnson, Emma Mason, and Dave Kandz

Contact InformationBarb Howard at 727.343.1272 or 727.512.4914

Friends@TampaBayRefuges.org

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.PO Box 40782St. Petersburg, FL 33743-0782or visit us on the web:www.TampaBayRefuges.org

Don’t Throw the Tortoise in the Water!by Emma Mason

Egmont Key, the largest island in the Tampa Bay NWR, is home to many gopher tortoises, a unique animal species that has successfully inhabited the island for decades. Gopher tortoises belong to a group of land tor-toises originating in western North America nearly 60 million years ago and that migrated to Florida millions of years ago.Overharvesting and loss of habitat has led to a “state threatened species” listing for the gopher tortoise. A land tortoise, no one seems to know just when they appeared on Egmont Key or how they got there. One thing we know for sure is they didn’t swim to the island! Their thick, heavy legs and feet with long nails are designed for digging deep burrows (up to 10 feet) and long (up to 40 feet) for shelter. These burrows also pro-vide food and shelter for over 360 species, resulting in gopher tortoises’ designation as a “keystone species.”

You’ll see numerous burrows throughout Egmont (gopher tortoises dig several a year) that are easy to spot because of their sandy “apron,” a mound of loose sand at each burrow’s entrance. Just remember, these tortoises are burrowers, NOT swimmers! Like all refuge critters, feeding and touching is also tabu. Egmont Key provides excellent opportunities to closely view gopher tortoises as they stroll around the open areas of the island, grazing on herbaceous plants, fruits, and berries. If you haven’t wandered the is-land and watched them in their natural habitat, fall is the perfect time to do so...

Mark Your Calendar!Pinellas Refuges Wildlife Surveys

•Sunday, August 18•Saturday, September 21•Sunday, October 20•Saturday, November 16

Live Birds of Prey with Gabe Vargo• Thursday, August 8 @ 6:30PM @ Guy

Harvey Outpost, a Tradewinds Beach Resort

Marine Quest

• Saturday October 19, 10-4 PM, BOOTH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Egmont Key Discover the Island•Saturday and Sunday, November 2-3 BOOTH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Boyd Hill Art Arbor•Saturday, November 2 (tentative) BOOTH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Board Meeting (all welcome)•2nd Monday of each month @ 6:30 PM, Panera Bread, Bryan Dairy and Starkey Road, Largo