Least Terns Nesting
Thousands of migratory waterfowl, shorebirds and other wetland dependent animals have claimed a 463-acre wildlife management area near Duke Energy’s Gibson Generating Station in Indiana as their own. The Cane Ridge Wildlife Area, located just outside Gibson Station, is also home to one of the largest colonies of the endangered least tern.
The Cane Ridge Area includes a newly constructed, 60-acre pond with two islands designed specifically to attract least terns. Each island is three acres in area, covered with gravel, and protected from land predators by solar-powered, electrified fencing.
Immediately following the construction of the first two nesting islands, the terns colonized the area, nested and fledged at least 50 chicks. That’s good news, because there are only about 8,000 interior least terns still in existence. Duke Energy is out to see that this colony is protected.
“The Cane Ridge Wildlife Area has become one of the most successful conservation efforts in the Midwest,” says Duke Energy Environmental Scientist Tim Hayes. “The endangered least tern began nesting at Gibson Station in the mid 1980s. The colony has grown to be the largest nesting colony of the least tern east of the Mississippi River. Now the birds, and scores of other wildlife, have an ideal home at Cane Ridge.”
In addition to the terns, approximately 12,000 waterfowl have been documented, as well as more than 300 other species of birds. The area has also attracted other endangered species, including the swamp rabbit and copper-bellied water snake, according to a state conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Plans for the project began in 1997 when Hayes met with three individuals to discuss the possibilities of converting the acreage adjacent to the Gibson Station cooling pond into a wildlife habitat. Funding and support for the project came from numerous federal, state and local agencies and private partners: Duke Energy; the Natural Resource Conservation Service; the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Ducks Unlimited; the Southwest Indiana Four Rivers Project Committee-North American Waterfowl Management Plan; Gibson County Coal Company; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Division of Fish and Wildlife, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and McCormick Farms.
Dedicated in August 2006, the Cane Ridge Wildlife Area is owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
