Documents

Masters Research:

William Miller 1948. Aspects of waterfowl management for the Barn Island public shooting area. MS Thesis at University of Connecticut. 291 pp.

In 1946, the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management at the University of Connecticut collaborated with the Connecticut Board of Fisheries and Game to foster research and offer management recommendations on newly acquired lands at the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area (BIWMA). The Board provided financial aid and summer living quarters (i.e., the Headquarters Cottage) at the research area. Miller's field research was conducted in 1946 and 1947, a time when four valley marshes were being diked and flooded (impounded). While Miller focused on the impounded marshes, he also describes the vegetation of the natural marsh, mostly from quadrats placed on the Headquarters Marsh.

In the summer 1947, Dr. Frank Egler and William Miller collaborated on the study of the vegetation of the headquarters marsh (plot analysis). This research is reported in the classic paper by Miller and Egler (1950). Josef Scaylea, a private photographer was made available to accompany Dr. Egler and William Miller to photograph the marshes at strategic locations called permanent photostations.

[Note: Today, the impoundments are numbered from 1 to 5 in a west to east direction. When the impoundments were constructed, the numbering for impoundment 1 and 2 were reversed.]

Alfred Gross 1966. Vegetation of the Brucker Marsh and the Barn Island Natural Area, Stonington, CT. Connecticut College, MS.

The Connecticut Board of Fisheries and Game proposed to impound the last valley marsh at BIWMA known as the Brucker Marsh. Gross, a Connecticut College graduate student, studies the vegetation of the Brucker Marsh and a nearby pilot area (peninsula south of the boat canal) recently designated as a pilot Natural Area Preserve. Gross rediscovers upland marsh edge erosion first observed by Miller and Gross refers to this as the 'eroded edge'.

George Hebard 1980. Vegetation pattern and changes in the impounded salt marshes of Barn Island Wildlife Management Area. M.A. Thesis, Botany Department, Connecticut College, New London.

Hebard, a Connecticut College graduate student, resurveys and maps the vegetation of the five impounded marshes. Field studies were conducted in 1977 and 1978, which preceeded tidal flow restoration efforts of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Wendy Blake Coleman 1978. Vegetation of the Wequetequock-Pawcatuck Marshes Stonington, Connecticut - A Comparative Study 1948 and 1976. Smith College, MA. 130 p.

Coleman, a graduate student at Smith College, study the vegetation of the natural marshes at BIWMA specifically Palmer Neck Marsh, Headquarters Marsh, "lower Brucker Marsh" and the mostly privately owned Davis Marsh. Lower Brucker Marsh was east of the marsh studied by Gross. Coleman mapped the plant communities of these marshes using a series of low-altitude slides taken from a fix-wing aircraft. Coleman also used aerial photography from 1934 and 1951 to map the vegetation of the Palmer Neck and Headquarter Marshes.

Lenny Bellet 2000. The impacts of accelerated relative sea level rise on Connecticut tidal marshes. M.A. Thesis. Department of Botany, Connecticut College, New London.

In 1973 Drs. William Niering and Scott Warren established permanent microrelief plots across the Connecticut Coast. This thesis resurveys 3 locations with established plots and established 2 new plots at Barn Island in 1998. There is one plot on Wequetequock Point and one on Headquarters Marsh.

FIELD TRIP NOTES:

Frank Egler (1974) - field trip notes.

Dr. Egler led a field trip to Barn Island in May 1953 which included Dr. William Niering from Connecticut College. Dr. Niering joined the staff of Connecticut College in 1952 and in 1953 he implemented long-term studies of a natural area preserved on campus. Niering and Egler would return to Barn Island every 10 years and make observations. In October 1974, Egler would prepare typed notes and illustrations of his observations made during the field trip. In these writings, Egler notes that this is not the marsh he described in 1974 and he refines the description of the marsh migration process he first described in Miller & Egler (1950).

William Niering (1974) - field trip notes.

These are the field trip notes from a visit to Barn Island with Dr. Egler.

Frank Egler (August 4, 1983) - man-panne notes.

This is Dr. Egler's last notes about Barn Island and in this document he describes the man-panne at the Headquarter's Marsh. When it first forms (Juncus dies and the peat erodes), the eroded edge resembles a foot path. In 1947, Miller & Egler (1950) include a photograph of the nearby photostation 14 showing the same type of erosion.

Frank Egler (June 1983) - field trip notes

This is the last of the decadal trips to Barn Island by Niering and Egler.

William Niering (August 1983) - field trip notes

These are the notes of a field trip to Barn Island with Dr. Scott Warren.

REPORTS:

Dreyer, G., R. Rozsa, and C. Jones. 2015. Management Assessment Report - Barn Island WMA, Stonington, Connecticut. Report to the Wildlife Division of the CT Dept. of Energy & Environmental Protection, 73 p and appendices.

With funding from the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, DEEP contracted with Connecticut to prepare an assessment report of Barn Island. This report will be used to develop a management plan. With the help of 2 research assistants, detailed observations of the upland communities were made and the distribution of invasive plants assessed. Tidal wetlands have been the subject of research and monitoring for some 70 years and so the main effort was locating and compiling reports and data. A remarkable discovery was locating the original photographs that established permanent photostations in 1947.

Warren, R.S., W.A. Niering, and A. Combs 1983. The impounded marshes at Barn Island: Present conditions and recommendations. 16 pages. Report.

A report that compares conditions in 1976 to 1983, provides avian observations and makes a series of management recommendations.