My 5 month Student Conservation Association (SCA) internship at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge (MSC-NWR) began on January 7th 2013. The Mississippi Sandhill Crane is and endangered species. The MS Sandhill Crane is a non-migratory subspecies of the Sandhill Crane. The Refuge has a captive breeding program in place to help increase the number of cranes since there is only a small number of successful breading pairs at the refuge. The MS Sandhill Crane lives in the constantly shrinking wet pine savanna that is dominated by Longleaf pine and Wiregrass. This habitat is a fire dependent habitat, if it does not burn every few years it will be take over by slash pine and many shrubs including Yaupon Holly and Gallberry. When these species establish themselves then the area is no longer suitable for the MS Sandhill Crane. The refuge has a large prescribed (Rx) fire regime to help keep the habitat suitable for the cranes. My job is to help monitor the effects that the fires are having on the environment so that the staff that do the prescribed burning can make sure that the fires they are putting on the ground are doing what they are meant to do. Ali, my fellow fire effect intern and myself do this several different ways. We do CBI's also know as Composite Burn Index's which allow the Rx fire staff to know the intensity of the burn. This can help them in future burns by knowing if they have been burning at the right intensity to kill back the understory shrubs and Slash pine that they want cleared out. We also do Fuel Loading inventories which help the Rx people determine the amount of fuel on the ground and how long a fire is likely to burn. This is important because the refuge is surrounding by development and smoke management is very important. I-10 runs right through the refuge and the refuge is also very near the towns of Gautier (pronounced GO-Shay) and Ocean Springs. We also monitor the moisture levels in plants like Yaupon Holly and Gallberry to help the Rx fire staff determine how well they would burn on a specific day.
Mississippi Sandhill Cranes almost always stay together in pairs, in the photo below the two specks in the air are a pair of Cranes, however at that distance it is impossible to tell if they are MS Sandhill Cranes or not, since other Sandhill Cranes are migratory and spend the winter season in this area.
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| Sandhill Crane Pair |
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| Longleaf Pine |
The Gopher Tortoise is an endangered species, as of now there are no know tortoise burrows on the Refuge. However there are several on property owned by The Nature Conservancy that adjoins the Refuge, and which at some future unknown date may very well belong to the Refuge.
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| Gopher Tortoise burrow |
My internship is based at Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR, however I can work anywhere in the Southeast region. My boss is actually based at Big Branch Marsh NWR in south east Louisiana. Since it is very likely that we will do work in that area Ali and myself went to spend a day with our boss, Sue at Big Branch. Due to weather we did not get to go out to do any monitoring, so instead we got a tour of the refuge. It was different from MSC so it was interesting to see the area. We got to see 3 different 9 Banded Armadillo's (they are invasive) and a few shore birds, including the Willet that is pictured below.
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| Willet |
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| Nine Banded Armadillo |
My 5 month Student Conservation Association (SCA) internship at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge (MSC-NWR) began on January 7th 2013. The Mississippi Sandhill Crane is and endangered species. The MS Sandhill Crane is a non-migratory subspecies of the Sandhill Crane. The Refuge has a captive breeding program in place to help increase the number of cranes since there is only a small number of successful breading pairs at the refuge. The MS Sandhill Crane lives in the constantly shrinking wet pine savanna that is dominated by Longleaf pine and Wiregrass. This habitat is a fire dependent habitat, if it does not burn every few years it will be take over by slash pine and many shrubs including Yaupon Holly and Gallberry. When these species establish themselves then the area is no longer suitable for the MS Sandhill Crane. The refuge has a large prescribed (Rx) fire regime to help keep the habitat suitable for the cranes. My job is to help monitor the effects that the fires are having on the environment so that the staff that do the prescribed burning can make sure that the fires they are putting on the ground are doing what they are meant to do. Ali, my fellow fire effect intern and myself do this several different ways. We do CBI's also know as Composite Burn Index's which allow the Rx fire staff to know the intensity of the burn. This can help them in future burns by knowing if they have been burning at the right intensity to kill back the understory shrubs and Slash pine that they want cleared out. We also do Fuel Loading inventories which help the Rx people determine the amount of fuel on the ground and how long a fire is likely to burn. This is important because the refuge is surrounding by development and smoke management is very important. I-10 runs right through the refuge and the refuge is also very near the towns of Gautier (pronounced GO-Shay) and Ocean Springs. We also monitor the moisture levels in plants like Yaupon Holly and Gallberry to help the Rx fire staff determine how well they would burn on a specific day.
