Supporters of St.Vincent NWR Inc.

Newsletter
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for the Supporters of
St. Vincent NWR

Visit us for the latest

news and pictures
around the refuge

Board Members
Nancy Stuart,
President
Audrey Schmidt,
Treasurer
Landy Luther,
Secretary
Virginia Satterfield
John Inzetta
Lisa Johnston
Sue Cerulean
Marie Steele
Carol Brown
Nancy Widener
Mike Turrisi
Trish Petrie
In partnership with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service

ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

The Supporters of St. Vincent NWR Annual
meeting took place in February 2015 at the St.
Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve building. In addition to excellent updates on the Refuge and
programs our guest speaker, author and long
time area nature expert, Sue Cerulean gave a
talk about her new book, Coming to Pass: Floridas Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change. This book
is a beautiful story of the little developed necklace of islands including St. Vincent Island in the
northern Gulf coast. This nature memoir
chronicles the uniquely beautiful coast as it is
now, once was and how it may be in the future
and is both a field guide and call for protection
for a beloved Florida landscape. Her book was
made available for pre-sale and signing at the
event and Sue generously donated her profits to
our Supporters group. If you are interested in
purchasing a book it is available via Amazon. Use
smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate a
portion of your spend to our group!

2015 Turtle Nest

Adoptions
Are still

AVAILABLE!

Each year in May sea

turtles return to the
Florida coast to lay
their eggs. St. Vincent NWR beaches
are home to as many
as 100 loggerhead sea
turtle nests each year.
Please think about
adopting a nest for the
2015 season. A $25
donation will help support the program
costs and volunteer
supplies!
Visit our website at:
www.stvincentfriends.com

A Lot To Smile About!

Did you know that when you shop at Amazon Smile, that Amazon donates .5%
of your purchase price to the Supporters of St. Vincent NWR, Inc.?
Its easy and links directly with your Amazon Prime account if you have one!
Bookmark this link and help us every time you shop!

Smile.Amazon.com

2015 Schedule
Sea Turtle Nesting Season: May 1October 15
Archery & Primitive Weapons Hunt : Nov 1921 2015
Applications: July 16- until filled
Sambar Deer Hunt : Dec 03 05 2015
Phase 2 applications: July 23Until filled
Primitive Weapons Hunt: Jan 1921 2016
Applications: July 16until filled
St Vincent NWR Map

http://myfwc.com/license/limited-entry-hunts

Spring and Summer on the Island

Come over to the island during the spring and you might see ospreys nesting in
dead snags around the fresh water lakes, sofshell turtles laying eggs in sand
roads, Wood Ducks around nest boxes, the whitetailed deer bucks are dropping antlers and young
Bald Eagles begin to test their wings. As we move into
summer (June - August) loggerhead sea turtles are
laying eggs on beaches. Female alligators are protecting nests in the marshes. Wood Storks are passing
through. Snowy Plovers and
Young whitetail deer
American Oystercatchers are
nesting and feeding on the
beaches. White-tailed bucks
SEA TURTLE UPDATE and sambar stags are in velvet.
As of July 31 we have 55
confirmed loggerhead sea
turtle nests. We already
have had several nests
hatch!

Regardless of the season please be aware and respectful

of all fenced and protected areas in order not to disturb
critical habitats for the animals calling St. Vincent NWR
home.
Young sambar stag

Welcome John Stark!

Our new Deputy Refuge Manager started
in July. Look for more information in our
next publication!
ST.

VINCENT

NWR

FIRST

HALF

2015

EDITION

International Migratory Bird Day and

May Island Tour
Twenty-one people attended our May island tour coinciding
with International Migratory Bird Day. The fortunate participants had the opportunity to meet Dr. Lori Lesters research
team from Delaware State University who were on the island
studying migratory song birds. The group stopped at the research site where Dr. Lester and her students had put up mist
nets and were treated to a close up look at two recently captured birds being evaluated. The tour group also saw seven
sambar deer along the route!
Dr. Lester gave a short talk to the visitors about the unique
and diverse habitats on the island. She explained about the
process used to measure wing length, take blood and claw samples from targeted species, how
they check fat stores and muscle mass, weigh, sex, band and check the birds feathers. There
were lots of questions from the visitors and a great deal of interest. We signed up two new
volunteers as a result of interest in the tour and program which is always a terrific bonus!
The research team estimated an approximate count of over 140 species of birds (from the 12
days they spent on St. Vincent NWR this year). They were able to observe and count by walking five transects & mist net capture. The SVNWR number compares favorably with estimated St. George Island numbers of 178 species (observed over three years of research).
Pretty darn impressive. It also appears that resident birds may be more abundant on SVINWR
than St. George, perhaps due to a more diverse habitat selection. These preliminary estimates
will await confirmation and interpretation of raw data.
The preliminary findings will be checked by verifying data over several years of observation as
this is only the first year of the research on SVINWR. The researchers were very excited to
have captured a Black-billed Cuckoo, which is rather unusual for this area. They shared how
happy they were to be allowed to study the migratory
birds on SVNWR and grateful for the support from
USFWS. The tour and the research were a great tie-in
with USFWS in support of International Migratory
Bird Day.

Meet the Newest Board Members

Supporters of St. Vincent NWR, Inc.
Lisa Johnston is a graduate of the University of Iowa and spent the majority of her career in Chicago with a Fortune 500 risk and insurance broker working with large law firms. During her summers, she would sail on Lake Michigan. Two years ago, she and her husband Bob were on vacation
in the Forgotten Coast and fell in love with the pristine natural beauty of the area, including what
she feels is the absolute treasure: St Vincent NWR. Lisa joined the board in November 2014 andhas since been involved with turtle patrol and other efforts in support of the Refuge.
Susan Cerulean is a writer, naturalist, and activist based in Tallahassee, Florida. Her second nature memoirComing to Pass: Floridas Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change was just published by the
University of Georgia Press. Previous books include Tracking Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed
Kites, UnspOILed: Writers Speak for Floridas Coast, and Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to
the Gulf. She has been exploring St. Vincent Island since 1984.

Marie Steele has been a resident of Indian Pass for 25 years and her husband Captain Joey

Romanelli is owner operator of St. Vincent Island Shuttle & Fishing Charters. Both have
been long time volunteers for the Refuge. We are lucky to welcome Marie back as she was
one of the original founding board members. She is a retired Federal & State Permitted
Wildlife Rehabilitator and a was a Volunteer Coordinator for Department of Environmental Protection and was a member of the Gulf County Turtle patrol.

No Picture
Available

Meet the Summer Intern Kimlynn Nguyen

The Supporters group was proud to sponsor an intern, Kimlynn Nguyen, this summer for 10 weeks,
Kimlynn graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelors degree in Wildlife Ecology and
Conservation and previously worked at St. Marks NWR as an intern there.
She is not only talented and a hard worker but also well traveled. She has been to Vietnam with family hiking to see the many temples in the country, and studied
abroad in Swaziland, Africa studying the effects elephants had on
the ecosystem.
She loves wildlife and enjoyed being able to work in an environment on the Refuge
that allowed her direct access to their habitats. At St. Vincent NWR she was able to
experience a few new things; marine turtle nesting surveys, reinforcing Bald eagle
nest boundary lines, capturing nuisance animals, radio tracking red wolves, captive
management of the red wolves, and aid in setting/removing the feral swine initiative
pens with USDA Wildlife Services. The Supporters group hopes to continue helping the Refuge and students alike
benefit from these unique and valuable conservation internship experiences.

Would you like to contribute an article or pictures to our newsletter?

Have suggestions regarding articles or information you would like to see?
Please contact us at: [email protected]
ST.

VINCENT

NWR

Join us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date happenings

on and around the Refuge! @stvincentnwr
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Red Wolf Program Update

http://www.fws.gov/redwolf/redwolfrecovery.html
St. Vincent NWR has participated in the red wolf (Canis rufus) propagation program since January of
1990. These medium-sized canids are native to the southeastern United States and the species was nearly
forced into extinction following European settlement of the region. To save this iconic species, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service for several decades has been overseeing a collaborative effort to reestablish a wild
population, including captive breeding of zoo-based wolves, natural propagation using carefully monitored
wolf pairs placed on isolated islands (of which St. Vincent is the last remaining active site), and eventual release of wolf pups into a population at Alligator River NWR in North Carolina.
St. Vincent NWRs previous female red wolf #1729, who was whelped on the island in May 2008,
died in January 2015 and was replaced two weeks later with another female from an exhibition zoo in
South Carolina. This new female and the existing male were placed in a large acclimation pen for the duration of the breeding season. They were released in June after it was certain no pups would be born this
year. Unfortunately soon after her release the female dispersed from the island by swimming across St.
Vincent Sound to the mainland. The female red wolf remained in close proximity to the island and was ultimately hand captured in the shallow waters of Indian Pass lagoon. (Staff monitors and tracks the red wolves
by radio telemetry collars on a daily basis). She was confined to the acclimation pen on the island until being
transferred to the Tallahassee Museum in Tallahassee, Florida. Staff are awaiting formal commitment regarding a replacement female red wolf from the Species Survival Plan group after their meeting held the
week of July 24 in Missouri.
As you may or may not know the red wolf recovery program is under intense scrutiny and is facing drastic
changes. The St. Vincent Supporters strongly support the continuation of the program both in North Carolina (Alligator River NWR) and here on St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. The wolves provide ecological benefits including removing species such as raccoon and feral pig that
prey on our sea turtle nests. Wolves are extremely territorial and often
force coyotes to leave the island, thus preventing them from predating sea
turtle nests. We in the Supporters group love the fact that we can help
keep this iconic endangered species in the wild.
If you would like to add you support to keeping wolves in the wild on St.
Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. You can write to Pete Benjamin, Ecological Services Field Office, 551 F Pylon Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina,
27607.
Some of the issues with the wolf population in North Carolina revolves around conflicts with the public in
the introduction area. You can be a strong voice to let them know that you support our small pack on St.
Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. Detailed history and current information is available online from various
sources online (search red wolf). We would like to encourage members to educate themselves and get

Out and About

On the right is a picture of several of our board members participated in the Wildlife Heritage Festival (WHO)
at our sister St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and were
able to share information about St. Vincent NWR!
To the left is a picture of our volunteer and staff turtle
patrol taken during a training event in May
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