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Project Osprey

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MANCHESTER, N.H.: It's a good time to be an osprey in New Hampshire.

Fish and Game's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program is joining forces with Public Service of New Hampshire and the Audubon Society of New Hampshire to work toward a full recovery of the state-threatened bird of prey in the next five years.

Project Osprey, as it's called, expands ongoing recovery efforts with the added benefit of a corporate partner, PSNH. Project Osprey is a major investment from a corporation to complete a recovery plan for a state-listed species. "This is a great project for PSNH to get more involved with," said William Frain, president and CEO of Public Service of New Hampshire. "Project Osprey" is a perfect example of taking corporate resources, people, equipment, locations, and applying them to the continuous improvement of the communities where we live and operate."

The project has three goals: foster a self-sustaining osprey population; develop a comprehensive educational program; and promote the partnership as a model for more collaboration among the business community, government agencies and environmental organizations. "We hope this project will show that businesses can get involved in conservation causes," said Chris Martin, Audubon's senior biologist.

The project begins this spring with biologists hammering out a recovery plan and determining how strong the osprey population must be before it can be considered recovered.

PSNH has long been a partner in osprey recovery by providing crews and equipment to erect man-made nesting platforms for osprey. Project Osprey calls for 15 more platforms.

"Nesting platforms are critical for attracting osprey into new areas to spread out the distribution so they're not all concentrated in one part of the state," said John Kanter, Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program coordinator.

"Once osprey start using new breeding areas, others will follow," Kanter said.

Osprey return to New Hampshire from southern wintering grounds each spring to breed near rivers, lakes and estuaries where they hunt for fish. Last year, roughly two dozen pairs of osprey nested in New Hampshire, fledging 28 chicks.

Most of those nests were north of the White Mountains. In recent years, however, recovery efforts have expanded their breeding range. Last year, osprey raised young in four different watersheds--the Androscoggin, Merrimack, Connecticut and Great Bay--signaling an impressive expansion of their range. Man-made nests in Auburn and the Great Bay area are much to thank for this expansion.

The educational compontnt to Project Osprey includes developing a teacher's curriculum on ecological concepts, establishing a web site for schools to keep tabs on the project, training volunteers to help monitor ospreys, and even providing live video images of osprey.

"We hope to have cameras at a nest site that schools will be able to use to access real -time video of what's happening on the nest," said Judy Silverberg, Fish and Game's education/watchable wildlife coordinator.

CONTACT:
   Doris Burke, PSNH: 603-634-2442
   Eric Aldrich, NHFG: 603-271-3211