Nesting Caspian Terns Return to Lower Klamath Refuge

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones, CA

July 29, 2010

In the summer of 2008 the refuge was approached by the Army Corps of Engineers with a proposal to build several Caspian Tern nesting islands on Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Refuges. All work on these projects has been completed. The U.S. Army Corps owns and manages East Sand Island near the mouth of the Columbia River.

With nearly 10,000 Caspian terns and 12,000 Doublecrested cormorants nesting there, it's the largest such colony in the world. That many fish eating birds can eat a lot of fish, particularly juvenile salmon. In 2008 the Army Corps implemented the "Caspian Tern Management to Reduce Predation of Juvenile Salmonids in the Columbia River Estuary" plan.

The plan's goal is to redistribute half of the East Sand Island Caspian Tern colony to alternate sites in Oregon and California by 2015. So, what does the refuge get out of this?

In September 2009 the Army Corps completed the first of three islands; a two acre earthen core rip-rap armored island in the south end of Sump 1(B) on Tule Lake Refuge. The island was designed to appeal to Caspian Terns as well as white pelicans, which we hope will eventually start a new colony there. Caspian Terns used the island this past May, but the water level in the sump was declining and ultimately no birds nested there.

A second island was completed in October, 2009 in the Orems unit of Lower Klamath Refuge. Due to draught conditions, water deliveries to the refuge have been much reduced and no water was available to flood the Orems unit this past spring. The third island is smaller at 0.8 acres, but also the most interesting. It's the largest floating island for wildlife in the world. Rectangular in shape, it was completed in March 2010 and is anchored in Sheepy Lake in unit 2 on Lower Klamath Refuge. The island is made of 5' by 12' modules held together under tension with cables. The modules look like giant scotch bright pads made of the same material you use for scrubbing dishes, but with polyurethane foam injected into holes in the modules for floatation. The island is topped with six inches of gravel for nesting substrate. Bulrush, willow and red osier dogwoods were planted in special planting modules on two sides of the island to provide shade and a windbreak. The island was built on the lake edge and pulled into the lake as each row of modules were added. A blind was later attached to one corner of the island so researchers could view birds without disturbing them.

The island was built on the lake edge and pulled into the lake as each row of modules were added. A blind was later attached to one corner of the island so researchers could view birds without disturbing them. In April, researchers from Oregon State University began monitoring the island for Caspian Tern use. On April 11 they put out over 200 Caspian Tern decoys and an audio playback system that broadcasts tern attraction calls. They had their first Caspian Tern on the island that same day. The numbers of Caspian terns, California and Ring-billed Gulls using the island steadily increased and on May 19 the first Caspian Tern egg was seen. By the week of June 28, the number of Caspian Terns peaked at 494 including 250 active nests, 239 nests with eggs and 11 nests with chicks. In addition, color leg banded Caspian Terns from East Sand Island on the Columbia River have been seen on the island. Once monitoring of tern use is completed, we hope that within a few years American White Pelicans that currently nest nearby on a bulrush mud flat will switch to the floating island. Because the mud flat island is low in the water we cannot operate the unit at as a high a water level as we would like without overtopping it. If the pelicans move to the floating island we can run the unit higher, which allows us to more easily convey water from unit 2 to other wetland units in the refuge.

In a 1905 visit to Lower Klamath Lake the naturalist photographer William Finley noted "We cruised over a large part of the lake, and found that the large rookeries of cormorants, grebes, white pelicans, great blue herons, California gulls and Caspian terns form one of the most extensive bird colonies we have ever seen". In 1917 the drying of Lower Klamath Lake was begun so the land could be farmed. Caspian Terns currently using the floating island likely represent the first to nest on the refuge since the refuge was dried up way back when.

The Pioneer Press was founded Nov. 16, 1972 by Gary Mortenson and was adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation (Former USPS 970-340) by court decree No. 26666 and was originally entered as a periodical paid at Post Office of Fort Jones, CA 96032 in June of 1973 under the Act of March 3, 1887. On June 9, 2010 the Pioneer Press published its last hard-copy printed weekly edition and began distributing its news daily in a digital format on June 25, 2010. Daniel Webster purchased the Pioneer Press on July 1, 1998 and currently the 100% owner of the publication. The Pioneer Press is the legal publication for the Town of Fort Jones, City of Etna, City of Dorris, and City of Tulelake and publishes all public notices for those cities. The Pioneer Press is the successor to the Klamath Courier, Butte Valley Star, Tri-County Courier, Lost River Star, The Dorris Weekly Advocate, The Dorris Times, The Dorris Booster, The Butte Valley News, and The Butte Valley Herald.

Daniel Webster, Editor and Publisher
Cindy Roton, Advertising Account Representative
Denise Hall, Editorial/Account Administrator

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