High school students in Olympia are helping DNR and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) get a better understanding how to keep the western purple martin a common sight across the Puget Sound region. That knowledge also is helping shape plans to restore a vital natural area where martins nest.
For the past two years, a group of students from Capital High School have helped DNR and WDFW study the dwindling numbers of western purple martins at Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA), north of Olympia. Coordinated by DNR’s Environmental Education program, the students monitored this species of concern over the summer and presented findings to both state agencies (see photo). The students’ data about a colony of martins at the NRCA will help DNR make important management decisions about restoration projects at the site.
The main portion of student monitoring happens in the late spring and early summer of their junior year of high school. Students are trained by agency staff to identify, observe, and record data about the purple martins.
One student, Chelsea Crane, wrote, “One of our favorite experiences was getting to watch the throw-down between two purple martins and a violet green swallow. I think a better name for the violet green swallow would be the violent green swallow, because its fighting tactics were brutal. We were all excited to see the martins win in the end, and got quite a show.”
A DNR feasibility study for restoring the nearshore habitat at Woodward Bay calls for retaining some of the wood pilings in Henderson Inlet to give purple martins a place to build nests over the water. The study included data collected by students in 2008. Since these birds have never been monitored at Woodard Bay, the students’ data provides a baseline of information for how many martins nest there.
This spring, students will recruit and help train the next group of high school juniors who will monitor the martins during the summer of 2010. We don’t know for sure but we assume the purple martins will be especially grateful for the students’ help in keeping their nesting area.
