The International Brant Monitoring Project

Hello! How are you?
       We are students from Bay View School in Burlington Washington in the Pacific Northwest of the United States who are happy to participate in the International Brant Monitoring Project.  Our 8th grade science class goes out every Tuesday in groups to collect data about brant.  Our 8th grade has around 60 students, not including the other 500 in our elementary school.
       It's hard to count brant because it's often cold, windy and rainy here. The places we go to look at brant are Camp Kirby, North Samish Island, and the Swinomish Channel (map).  We see most of the brant at the Swinomish Channel and there is eel grass in the other places.
       We really enjoy participating in this project despite the cold, windy, and rainy weather. We have worked hard and are anxious to hear more about your success.

       Good bye, 8th grade students at Bay View School

This 11,000 acre bay is located in the Salish Sea (some people call it northern Puget Sound). When the brant are here (October through May), average temperatures range from 35 to 50 degrees farenheit. Average rainfall is only 40 inches per year, but it is often cloudy, windy and drizzly for long stretches. Brant come to Padilla Bay because it has one of the largest eelgrass beds on the west coast, second only to Izembek Lagoon.

Sloughs drain low, flat land that has been diked to make good farmland. Padilla Bay is home to two oil refineries. There are no marinas but there is a state park, 2 boat launches and a long hiking trail on top of one of the dikes.
Map of Salish Sea and Padilla Bay
Map of Padilla Bay showing brant monitoring sites

	Bay View School students observing Brant and recording data at Padilla Bay on Samish Island.
	Bay View School students with their teacher Tom Wells observing Brant in Padilla Bay on Samish Island.
	A local newspaper reporter accompanied us on one of our Brant expenditions. Shown here are two Bay View students and an Educator from Padilla Bay Research Reserve.

Bay View School
Janet Hofmann, Teacher

Bay View School, located near the town of Bay View WA, has 400 students in kindergarten through 8th grade. The charming town of Bay View overlooks Padilla Bay. The school is 7 minutes from Padilla Bay Reserve. The town was established in the l890's. Logging was the first major industry and most of the ridge was completely logged by the turn of the century. From l890 to l920 settlers diked and drained the area creating farmland. Today farming continues to be strong, but development pressures are potential threats to the farmland and the ecology of Padilla Bay.

Glen Alexander, Education Coordinator

Padilla Bay Reserve was included in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System because of it's extensive eelgrass beds. The Breazeale Interpretive Center includes research and education facilities. Educational programs are offered to school groups, adults, teachers, and families. Reasearch topics in Padilla Bay have ranged from primary productivity, seagrass distribution, and Dungeness crab habitat to toxic sediments, pesticide run-off and suspended sediments.

Jonna sloan, Education Assistant

This school year, Jonna is serving as an educator at Padilla Bay Reserve and partnering with Bayview School in the Brant Project. She has enjoyed accompanying the 8th grade students on brant trips each week and watching them grow in their understanding of the local ecology and the connection within the Pacific Flyway.