Coastal Breeding Bird Monitoring Protocol for Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area: 2011 Revision

Trocki, Carol; Mitchell, Brian; Paton, Peter

In 1992, the National Park Service (NPS) developed a national policy “to better understand [the] dynamic nature and condition of natural resources, to detect or predict changes that may require intervention, and to serve as reference points for more altered parts of the environment. By integrating this information into NPS planning, management, and decision-making, scientific knowledge of natural resources will improve NPS stewardship of our heritage lands” (NPS 1992). The result was that NPS developed an Inventory & Monitoring Program which identified all parks in the NPS system with significant natural resources and in 1998 created 32 “networks,” or groupings, of parks linked by geography and shared natural resource characteristics. The goals of the networks are to work to develop common monitoring methodologies for data comparability, to reduce the level of effort required, and to share resources. Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (BOHA) is one of thirteen park units included in the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN), which is one of four networks in the NPS Northeast Region. BOHA includes 34 islands and peninsulas situated within the Greater Boston shoreline (Figure 1). It was established by Congress as a unit of the National Park System in 1996 (Public Law 104-333). The park has a threefold purpose of (1) preserving and protecting a drumlin island system within Boston Harbor, along with its associated natural, cultural, and historic resources, (2) telling the islands’ individual stories and enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the island system as a whole, and (3) providing public access, where appropriate, to the islands and surrounding waters for education, enjoyment, and scientific and scholarly research for this and future generations (BOHA General Management Plan 2002). In support of the park’s mission, volunteers will be used to implement the coastal breeding bird protocol. This will enhance community involvement with park islands, provide an opportunity for various stakeholders to participate in long-term monitoring within the park, and be a cost-effective means to implement this program. The Boston Harbor Islands are part of the only drumlin field in the United States that intersects a coastline. Located at 42° N latitude in the Northeastern Coastal Zone level III ecoregion (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2002), the islands have a humid maritime climate characterized by a moderate annual range of temperatures and definite summer and winter seasons. The park encompasses a total of 600 terrestrial ha, with islands and peninsulas ranging in size from 0.1 to 104.5 terrestrial ha (Roman et al. 2005). In addition, the park includes approximately 55 km of shoreline and 641 ha of intertidal habitat (Roman et al. 2005). BOHA is a unique unit of the national park system in that it is managed by a 13-member partnership which includes the National Park Service and other public and private stakeholders (Table 1). The NPS owns no land in the park. The islands vary in their geologic and ecologic composition, in addition to their degree of influence from human use over time. Available habitats include open water, rocky shores, tidal flats, beaches, dunes, cliffs, ledges, maritime shrub and deciduous forest communities, salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and a few examples of human-maintained fields and grasslands.The flora and fauna of the islands reflect their long history of human use and alteration; forty-four percent of the plant species documented in the park are classified as exotic (Elliman 2005).

Coastal Breeding Bird Monitoring Protocol for Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area: 2011 Revision

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