The Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge is located on the south coast of Maui. Kealia Pond is one of the few wetlands remaining in the Hawaiian Islands. The Kealia Pond is 691 acre wetland home to the endangered Hawaiian stilt and the Hawaiian coot. The Kealia Pond open water and mudflat areas with vegetation provides nesting areas,feeding areas and habitat for endangered birds. The two endangered species that are most commonly found in pond are the Hawaiian Coot and the Hawaiian Stilt. The Hawaiian coot is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It's natural habitats are freshwater lakes, freshwater lakes, freshwater marches, coastal lagoons and water storage areas. The Hawaiian Stilt is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It's natural habitat is coastal pond and fish ponds. The endangered specie are threatened by habitat loss. There are a few native plants such as the salt grass and sea purslane that can be found in the Kealia Pond. The Invasive specie that are class was concerned about was the California Bulrush because it is a plant that disturbs the nesting grounds and does not provide a home for the animals. This is a serious matter because the endangered species have a hard time finding a home to rest and to lay there eggs.
This is a picture of the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge.
The Significance of the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge is that the refuge provides a home and feeding area for native water birds. It is important to help get rid of the California Bulrush because it takes over the pond and makes it hard for the endangered species to nest and to lay eggs. If the Bulrush continues to grow the number of endangered species will start to decline.
This is a graph of the height of the Bulrush before the treatment.
This is graph of the density of the Bulrush before the treatment.
This is a graph of the height of the Bulrush after we did the treatment
This is a graph of the density of the Bulrush after the treatment
This is a picture of the Test Area #1(Spray)
This is a picture of the Test Area #2(Cut & Spray)
This is a picture of the Test Area #3(Cut)
This is a picture of the Test Area #4(Control)
In conclusion I realized that the most efficient treatment to help eradicate the California Bulrush is to cut and spray. From my graphs it shows that the best solution is cut and spray and then the next solution would be to cut it and then the last solution would to just spray. At the beginning of the treatment I had a feeling that the cut and spray was going to be the most efficient treatment. For this Test Area we had to cut the bulrush right by the water height and spray it. I believe this treatment turned out to be the best because we cut the bulrush so low that it would have a hard time growing again and especially because we put a spray that would help kill it.
Reef is a monitoring program that was established in 1990. There mission is to To conserve marine ecosystems for their recreational, commercial, and intrinsic value by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active stewards and citizen scientists.
Procedure:
*Formed a group of 2
*Got a survery slate, snorkel & fins
*Got into the water
*Swam in Ko'ie'ie fishpond for 30 minutes
*Looked for fish to conduct my fish survery
*Got out of the water and filled out fish identificatioin survey
Discussion:
Unfortunately my partner and I did not see any fish while we were snorkeling in Ko'ie'ie fishpond. The water was not visible due to the sediment and the movement in the water. In Decmeber 27 there was a masive storm that hit Maui causing a lot of beach erosion to happen at Ko'ie'ie fishpond. Before the storm hit the fishpond was a great place to snorkel and to conduct fish surverys. The visibility was great and there wre great abundance of fish that lived in the fishpond. Now the fishpond contains a lot of sedimentand it will take awhile for the water to become visible agin do to the wall that controls the fish population.
This is one of my class mates snorkeling in the fishpond
The Outdoor Science class getting in Ko'ie'ie fishpond
Me and my group looking for fish to survery
For more information please feel free to vist "www.Reef.org"
