Updated at 7:03 a.m., Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Marines hosting Mud Operations at Nu'upia Ponds
Advertiser Staff
Marines from the Kane'ohe Marine Corps Base Hawai'i will be performing Mud Operations today at the Nu'upia Ponds Wildlife Management Area.In the early 1980s, MCBH natural resources staff and Marines began using amphibious assault vehicles each spring — just before the nesting season for the endangered Hawaiian stilts — to control invasive pickle weed ground cover that crowds the birds out of their habitat at Nu'upia Ponds Wildlife Management Area.
According to an MCBH news release, breaking up the weeds on the mudflats opens up the habitat for better foraging and ground-nesting opportunities for the birds and creates water-filled furrows that form a checkerboard pattern across the mudflat that discourages predator access.
Over the past 25 years of this annual operation, the number of Hawaiian stilts hosted at the ponds has grown steadily from about 60 to 160 birds and increased use of the habitat by dozens of other native and migratory waterfowl protected by federal laws, the news release said.
