Chapter 1: Join the Project!
This chapter provides information on how to begin the project, an overview of what other sites are doing, and the natural history of the brant.
How to Participate
The following outline for how to participate, is a short summary of the project’s curriculum. Read on to learn the basics of the project, the natural history of the brant… And then, simply begin with chapter 2. It will lead you through a series of activities to get all new participants started.
1. Take a look at the home page located at http://www.padillabay.gov/brant . There you will find a brief introduction, flyway map showing participating sites, information about participants, observation log (tells who saw Brant when and where), artistic exhibits by participants, and the curriculum for implementing the project in your classroom.
2. If you decide you want to become a participant, tell the International Coordinator exactly where your site is (see chapter 3). We can then add you to the flyway map. Have your students produce information about your site similar to what the other sites have done (see chapter 3) on the homepage and send that to the International Coordinator.
3. If you decide you want to receive correspondence from other participants, ask the International Coordinator how to subscribe to our automated email list. Then you will receive entrees to the Observation Log from other sites as they happen. See Chapter 3 of this curriculum for more specifics on telecommunications.
4. Begin teaching about Brant geese, their ecology, migration, and their habitat by using the curriculum. Ask a local hunter, wildlife biologist, State regulator (Dept. of Fish and Game?), bird watcher, or other knowledgeable adult to speak to your class. Ask for access to data about Brant.
5. Go out to the bay and observe the geese under the direction of the experts mentioned above and by following the field trip section (chapter 8) of the curriculum. You should try to get students out one or two times each week between the time when your experts tell you the Brant will arrive through when they will depart. Students return to class and produce a synopsis of their findings. Send the report to the list serve address with "Observation Log" in the subject line. It will later be added to the home page.
6. Students can also produce essays, poems, pictures, research reports, and stories about Brant geese. Send these to the International Coordinator to be added to the Exhibits page.
What is the Brant Project?
The Brant Monitoring Project has been developed along the Pacific Coast Flyway for students to participate in an on-going international, cultural, and scientific exchange of information about the Brant Geese. Participants include schools in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, and Baja, Mexico. This curriculum offers classes the opportunity to become a part of this exciting, international project.Participation in the Brant Monitoring Project will increase ecological understanding and the willingness to care about the. Students will learn to successfully monitor the presence and behavior of Brant, providing valuable information to resource managers. Students will come away from this project with a global sense of stewardship and individual responsibility to properly manage local ecosystems.
What are Brant?
Brant are small geese that undertake a spectacular migration spanning four countries and two continents. Their life cycle depends on coastal and estuarine waters from the high Arctic tundra of Russia, Alaska, and Canada, to the embayments of Baja California and the mainland Pacific Coast of Mexico. Coastal estuaries of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and British Columbia provide important staging areas for the spring and fall migrations. The energy required for Brant to undertake their migrations makes them particularly vulnerable to disturbances in the habitats upon which they depend, e.g., the eelgrass beds of Izembek Lagoon, Padilla Bay, and San Quintin, nesting habitats in the high Arctic, and staging areas along the California, Oregon, Washington, Alaskan, and Canadian coasts.The geese converge at the Izembek Lagoon (Alaska) in the fall to commence their fall migration. It is here at this lagoon, the famous staging area for more than 120,000 Brant, where Brant can be found consuming eelgrass in preparation for their migration south. The geese then begin their 3000-mile, non-stop flight (taking between 60 and 90 hours) south to the estuaries and lagoons of the Baja Peninsula, where they forage on more eelgrass to replace the fat reserves expended during their migration. Spring migration commences in February. As the geese migrate northward, the Brant utilize the estuaries in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia as migratory stopovers to feed on eelgrass, sea lettuce and other marine algae, roe of Pacific herring, crustaceans, and mollusks. By late March and into April, Brant reach Izembek Lagoon, where they may spend from 2 to 4 weeks feeding on eelgrass before going to their nesting areas on the Yukon-Kuskokwim river deltas, and in arctic Alaska, Russia, and Canada.
What pressures are the Brant facing?
Because of the dependence of the population on relatively few key sites, the entire population is vulnerable to pressures at any one location. Pressures on the Brant population include fox predation on nesting grounds, subsistence hunting and egg gathering, recreational hunting throughout their range, loss of wetlands and food sources due to development, disturbance by aircraft and boat traffic, adverse weather conditions on nesting grounds and potential oil spills. As a result of fly-way wide impacts, the population has varied greatly from approximately 194,000 in 1981 to 130,000 in 1984.What are the other project sites doing throughout the year?
The Brant Project is one coordinated flyway-wide research project implemented as 'site-separate' but integrated components. The objectives of the project are identical throughout the sites and no site will be able to meet the objectives of the project without relying on information provided by students at the other sites. This interdependency will help ensure quality control among the information gathered by the students with the assistance of project coordinators and wildlife biologists.Alaska:
The geese depart Alaska for their southward migration near the end of October. Alaska continues to monitor for geese that may overwinter in the area. Alaska is an essential part in transferring information along the flyway throughout the entire year. Alaska is the first to have the care package, and the first to send it south.Washington and British Columbia:
The geese depart from Alaska for their southward migration near the end of October. Some Brant actually overwinter in these areas, and others use the areas as stopovers and resting areas during their migration north in late winter/early spring.Oregon:
The geese normally arrive in the Coos Bay area in February. There are some overwintering populations known to inhabit areas on the northern coasts of the state.San Quintin, Mexico:
The geese will be arriving in this area sometime in late October to early November from Alaska.