Turtle Trap Volunteers Boating to Another Trap
Seining Volunteers Collecting Seine
Fish Derby May 21, 2005
Middle Schoole Day of Caring and Education
Project Update 05/06/05
Fish Derby Scheduled for May 21, 2005
The long awaited Fish Derby will be taking place at Delta Ponds on May 21, 2005. Registration begins at 9:30 AM. And the Derby itself will run from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Prizes will be awarded at 2:30 PM. This is a great way to get the whole family involved in the monitoring efforts taking place at the ponds. Check back soon for a flyer or email Rhonda Zimlich or Kate Darby for more information.
Project Update 05/03/05
Turtle Survey Well Underway
Since its inception on April 24 th , the turtle survey is well underway with volunteers now checking 16 traps daily. So far, many western pond turtles have been recorded as well as several red-eared sliders. Initially, volunteers were not scheduled for adequate time, but this has recently been remedied. Volunteers have expanded their schedules and are having great success in assessing the turtles of the pond.
Fish Seining Concluded
Fish seining was conducted at the ponds on Saturday, April 30 th . Three locations were seined using a 75' seining net to survey fish in the ponds. The results were not as definitive expected. A total of 11 bluegill were found--many juvenile. This could have been partially due to the increase in vegetation because of more sunlight filtering through the water of the ponds over the summer, speculated Erik Moberly of ODFW. The subsurface vegetation that grows beneath the water at the ponds does not permit the seine to collect the amount of fish it normally would.
Fish Derby
This is an exciting monitoring effort that will be fin for the whole family. Bring out your fishing poles and help the SLP team assess the fish population first hand. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to participate.
Reports
We have been collecting all information that we have gathered throughout our monitoring efforts and are currently compiling a number of reports for the City of Eugene and ODFW. In addition to these reports, we will be giving a formal presentation of our results, along with other SLP projects from the Environmental Studies Dept. at the U of O on Tuesday, June 7th from 1:00 - 3:00, in the Knight Library Browsing Room.
Project Update 05/03/05
Turtle Survey Well Underway
Since its inception on April 24 th , the turtle survey is well underway with volunteers now checking 16 traps daily. So far, many western pond turtles have been recorded as well as several red-eared sliders. Initially, volunteers were not scheduled for adequate time, but this has recently been remedied. Volunteers have expanded their schedules and are having great success in assessing the turtles of the pond.
Fish Seining Concluded
Fish seining was conducted at the ponds on Saturday, April 30 th . Three locations were seined using a 75' seining net to survey fish in the ponds. The results were not as definitive expected. A total of 11 bluegill were found--many juvenile. This could have been partially due to the increase in vegetation because of more sunlight filtering through the water of the ponds over the summer, speculated Erik Moberly of ODFW. The subsurface vegetation that grows beneath the water at the ponds does not permit the seine to collect the amount of fish it normally would.
Fish Derby
This is an exciting monitoring effort that will be fin for the whole family. Bring out your fishing poles and help the SLP team assess the fish population first hand. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to participate.
Reports
We have been collecting all information that we have gathered throughout our monitoring efforts and are currently compiling a number of reports for the City of Eugene and ODFW. In addition to these reports, we will be giving a formal presentation of our results, along with other SLP projects from the Environmental Studies Dept. at the U of O on Tuesday, June 7th from 1:00 - 3:00, in the Knight Library Browsing Room.
Project Update 04/12/05
Bullfrog Vocalization Wednesday Nights through April 20 th
The bullfrog vocalization survey is well underway on Wednesday nights. We have not yet heard any bullfrogs but are still going out each week. We are optimistic to hear more as the amphibians have been active with the recent rains.
Turtle Monitoring Starts April 24 th
This is another exciting aspect of our monitoring efforts. Traps are being placed around the ponds and a group of volunteers will check them daily. Western pond turtles will be recorded, marked and released. Check back for the results of this aspect of our monitoring effort.
Fish Seining April 30 th
We will be conducting fish seining all day on April 30th at several Delta Ponds sites. We will be using a 75' seining net to survey fish in the ponds. The information gathered will be used to further assess the populations of fish at the ponds.
Fish Derby May 14 th (note: since the date of this posting the original date scheduled for the fish derby has been postponed one week. THE NEW DATE IS IS NOW MAY 21, 10 AM to 2 PM at the Delta Ponds)
This is an exciting monitoring effort that will be fin for the whole family. Bring out your fishing poles and help the SLP team assess the fish population first hand. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to participate.
Fish Trap Update
The recent rains have not been enough to reopen the fish survey at the trap at Dedrick Slough. Stay tuned for any changes.
Project Update 04/08/05
Fish Survey
Due to the recent rains, we have decided to re-open the fish trap. We will be scheduling volunteers for the next two weeks and will continue to schedule monitoring as conditions allow. Please contact Rhonda Zimlich if you wish to volunteer for this task.
Salamander Survey
We will also continue our salamander monitoring efforts due to improving conditions. Monitoring is scheduled for Monday, April 04, and will be scheduled thereafter depending on the data gathered.
Bull Frog Survey
We will begin a new phase of the amphibian monitoring this week with the bullfrog vocalization survey. We will be at the ponds, Wednesday, April 5 th at 8:30 pm to perform a vocalization survey, this time listening for bullfrog calls. This task will be similar to the tree frog vocalization survey finished in March. We will continue to monitor bullfrog at the same time on the following two Wednesdays. Please contact Haley Harguth is you are interested in volunteering.
Turtle Survey
The turtle survey will be underway soon. We will soon be scheduling volunteers for this task that will involve University of Oregon students participating in a one-credit field course. Please contact Dan Davis for more information. Volunteers will be needed for this task, as the traps will be checked every day.
Vegetation Survey
The vegetation survey is ongoing as more and more of the pond area is mapped according to vegetation groups. We appreciate the continued assistance from Lauri Mullen, at the City of Eugene, and others who have contributed their expertise.
The group is beginning work on the final report which details the data gathered throughout the project as well as compiling the monitoring plan describing the methods and instructions for future monitoring work.
Project Update 2/8/05
Team UpdateThe Delta Ponds SLP team has been hard at work for the last several weeks as we prepare for upcoming monitoring efforts. We will be conducting a red-legged frog egg mass survey soon, as well as a pacific tree frog vocalization survey. We scheduled the training for turtle monitoring for early March, though the monitoring will not take place until spring term. Also, we established salamander survey sites around the ponds for future monitoring. These preparations have kept all of our team members very busy.
We have been talking about using GIS software to create maps of our monitoring work at the Delta Ponds. This would involve using GPS units to establish the coordinates of specific survey sites and converting this information into useful maps of habitat areas at the ponds. This is very exciting and the Delta Ponds team is looking forward learning and using these programs.
We are about halfway through winter term, and workload is beginning to increase. The team is leaving the planning stage and beginning our actual monitoring efforts at the ponds. Everyone is looking forward to the more hands-on work of monitoring the wildlife at the ponds.
Fish TrapDue to the lack of rain this winter, the Delta Ponds team, in conjunction with ODFW, decided to cease monitoring efforts at the fish trap in Dedrick slough. This decision came as a result of low catches at the trap. When the rains do come and water levels rise, we will resume monitoring at the trap using the schedule of volunteers that has already been established.
The implications of this extremely dry winter are not yet clear. Low water levels could lead to higher summer temperatures at the ponds resulting in eutrophication, or increased levels of algae in the ponds. This creates warm, low oxygen conditions, which favor invasive species such as the bullfrog and aquatic plants.
Tree Frog Vocalization SurveyThursday, Februrary 10th will be our first vocalization survey at the ponds. Volunteers will be assigned locations at the ponds where they will listen for the distinct call of the Pacific tree frog. The volunteers will record their observations , which the team will use to create a map of potential tree frog habitat at the ponds. Subsequent surveys will occur on the 17 th and 24 th of February.
Red Legged Frog Egg Mass SurveyHaley Harguth, Amphibian and Reptile coordinator of the Delta Ponds team, will be conducting an egg mass survey at the ponds, beginning on February 12th . This will entail searching for egg masses in the vegetation along the shoreline of several of the ponds. For this monitoring effort we will be using a canoe to navigate the ponds. Our team is very excited about getting out on the water and seeing the ponds from a different perspective. Not to mention that everyone loves canoes.
Project Update 02/03/05
Fish Monitoring UpdateThe recent unseasonably dry weather this winter has kept the water levels down in the ponds and the slough where our fish trap is located. We are finding a small number of fish, however, and are hopeful for some rain to raise the water and increase species abundance and diversity in the trap. Rhonda Zimlich, our fish lead, has worked with UO and Stream Team volunteers to schedule fish trap monitoring through March 26 th . The volunteer schedule will soon be accessible on the website, as well as fish species and identification information for our volunteers. Please check back (or contact Rhonda) for your scheduled monitoring dates. Rhonda is also developing a data spreadsheet to compile the data collected at the trap. We will begin another component of the fish-monitoring task, net seining, in mid-February. We are in the process of identifying sites throughout the Delta Ponds for seining.
Vegetation Survey UpdateWe will perform the vegetation survey of the Delta Ponds using aerial photography, rather than ground proofing as originally planned. Ground proofing, a process involving scouting and identifying plants is difficult in the winter when plants are not leafing or in bloom. Mona Jones-Romansic has been working with Lauri Mullen, at the City of Eugene, to create the procedure for this task. She are also consulting other outside experts for their knowledge in botany and mapping procedures.
Amphibian Monitoring UpdateWe are developing the protocols for all three components of our amphibian surveys. The Tree Frog vocalization survey will take place on February 10 th , 17 th , and 24 th . We will conduct late-night listening surveys at specified sites along a predetermined route through the ponds. Using the data collected, we will establish an estimate of the Tree Frog population using the ponds as habitat. Dan Davis is currently coordinating volunteers for this task; please contact him if you wish to help.
Materials for our salamander survey will be placed February 1 st . We will be placing plywood, carpet, or other materials in a diverse set of sites around the ponds in order to create areas of ideal habitat for salamanders. We will then check the sites in March and April for the presence and abundance of Rough Skinned Newts and Northwestern Salamanders. The time between the placement of materials and monitoring the sites is necessary to create microenvironments that salamanders look for in their habitat selection.
The Red-Legged Frog egg mass survey will begin February 12 th . This task will take place once weekly for four weeks. Red-Legged Frog egg masses are easily identified attached to vegetation in shallow water. We will use this data to estimate a count for the species population present at the Delta Ponds. Haley Harguth will be heading up the fieldwork for this task with help from other members of the Delta Ponds team. We are currently developing the mapping procedure for all of these tasks.
The team has also begun work on writing the introduction sections for each area of our final report. Please continue to check the website as it is being renovated and updated to include additional information on each section of the project. In order to better involve our volunteers and citizens affected by our work we will be including a history of the site, volunteer information, and a calendar of events. We hope this will provide clear communication between the Delta Ponds team and our volunteers. Stay tuned for upcoming volunteer opportunities!
Project Update 1/14/05
After a nice break over the holidays the Delta Ponds team is gearing up for a busy winter term. Wanting to get a quick start, the team met early in January and divided the Delta Ponds work plan into manageable segments. At that meeting, each team member took on a role in the project. Mona Jones will be our vegetation lead and webmaster, Dan Davis will be our turtle monitoring lead, Haley Harguth will be our amphibian monitoring lead, and Rhonda Zimlich will be our fish monitoring lead. For the winter term, the next ten weeks, team members may cross over to other areas. For example, since turtle monitoring will not get started until the spring, Dan will be assisting Haley and Rhonda this term The team members have expressed eagerness to get started this term and enthusiasm for the Delta Ponds restoration project.
Fish Monitoring UpdateThe fish trap has been in place in Debrick Slough at Delta Ponds now for over a month. On December 4 th , the City of Eugene, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the UO Service Learning Program trained 21 volunteers to collect, measure, and identify the fish that could potentially be found at the ponds. The volunteer pool includes Americorps students from the UO's Service Learning Program and volunteers from Eugene's Stream Team. Volunteers began checking the trap on December 7 th and will continue through the spring.
With heavy rains in December, the wings of the trap were subjected to high flow volumes in the slough. This pushed a section of the wings over and also tipped one of the traps. This did not seem to affect the number of fish that were collected in the traps. However, as water levels receded and temperatures dropped, the number of fish collected also decreased. Over the winter break, volunteers and staff repaired the wings and the water has yet to return to higher levels.
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