 My name's Tracy Hart, so I'm the manager of the Maine Loon Project, and we're just embarking on a new project that we're calling the Maine Loon Restoration Project. And this project is really to help improve the hatching success and the productivity of loons in Maine. And it's a partnership that's funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the Bouchard B120 oil spill, which settlement funds are bringing money into this project to restore loons that were lost to an oil spill. And we have several partners on the project, it's Maine Audubon, Maine Lakes is also one of our partners, the Penobscot Nation, and Lakes Environmental Association. And we're focusing on loons that have had particular problems with nesting. So we're focusing on pairs that have perpetually failed to nest again and again, and things that rafts, like we'll be showing you in a minute, can actually help address. In this video, we'll be introducing you to artificial nesting platforms, which we often call loon rafts. We're going to be giving an overview of how to tell if a raft might be right for your pond, how to build the two types of loon rafts that we use in this project, modular and cedar, and how to choose a good spot for a raft. Loon rafts are basically floating islands designed to address a number of different problems that loons can face while nesting. The rafts rise and fall with boatwakes or changing water levels, which helps to reduce nest flooding. Rafts also provide new nesting habitat when structures like houses and docks are built at their nesting sites. Lastly, rafts give loons a place to nest offshore away from land predators and away from human activities that might cause loons to abandon their nests. But as you'll hear in this video, rafts aren't always the right solution. They can even lower a pair's chances of hatching chicks if used in the wrong situations or aren't maintained. That's why in this project we're working with local residents to identify loon pairs that are failing to hatch chicks year after year and to figure out what's causing the problem. When we find a pair that is a good candidate for a raft, we're helping to build and place rafts out on the water and teach volunteers how to monitor and maintain them. We hope, after watching this video, you'll decide to join us and become part of the main loon restoration project. Well now we're going to go through the process and the steps for building a cedar log raft. I want to introduce Laura Williams, who is going to be here to help us. And I'm a biologist with Maine Audubon and I've been working on the piping clover crew for a couple years now and have been helping out with the loon raft project and I'm really excited to get some rafts out on lakes. We've chosen a cedar log raft. This is the type of raft that's been used for over 50 years to hatch loons on artificial nesting rafts. So we know that they work to hatch chicks. We also know it's very sturdy. The materials are all biodegradable except for the floats and those can be recycled. So it's a really nice design and one that we know is beneficial to loons. So what we have for materials here, we have two logs that are four feet long and they have been pre-notched so that they can fit together with two other logs that are not notched. So these are all cedar logs. These have been notched so that they are half the diameter of these logs and then they can fit nicely together with the butt end of this flat log. We also have four floats that will help give extra buoyancy to these rafts. And then we have decking materials that will go on top to make a platform. And lastly we have some eyeballs and these will put into the logs here and will attach anchor lines onto them and that will help to anchor the rafts in place so that they don't float into another loons territory where they can end up causing confrontations. All right, so we got our four logs here and as Tracy mentioned earlier they're notched. We got them labeled. This one says Q1 and on the other side of this it also says Q1. We want to match up those letters and numbers and then attach the two logs together using these lag bolts and we'll attach them on all four corners and that will pull the raft in. And then we do this at a diagonal where we pre-drill the holes because they're very long bolts just to help it get through. So drill one and I'll do a second one on this side. That's all right. That's all I did enough for now. This is an impact driver. All four of these logs are now attached together in a rectangular frame with the lag bolts. Now we're going to be putting these rigid oyster floats in place. These are traditionally people have used closed cell blue foam and that often degrades in the lakes so we're trying to use something that's recyclable and still provides flotation. So we'll attach these with zip tie long zip ties. These are about three feet long onto the inside of each log. And to do so we're going to zip tie over this indentation because that'll hold it on. Okay now with the flotation all in place now we're ready to start putting on the decking platform. Okay so we want to place the decking boards so that they are in the same direction as the notched logs. So we're going to place them this direction and you can leave a little bit of space off in the size of about a screw like this so that there can be some drainage in the nest bowl. And so what it does to have them go this direction is then you have this really nice smooth log that they can use to get up on and you don't have the rugged ends for their entry and exit. Yes you want to pre-line them up just like this so that you can be sure that they fit fine on your 4x4 foot raft. Okay to fasten these boards down we are now going to use three inch decking screws galvanized so they're less likely to rust and then you can always take them out if you need to at any point because we're using screws versus nails. So now we're going to attach eye bolts so we can anchor these rafts once they're deployed on the lake. We'll pre-drill holes on the front here and attach one to each corner. That way once it's on the lake we can attach anchor lines to this and then a cinder block and that'll keep the raft from floating away. Should I go ahead and pre-drill? And again we place these on the ones where the log is not notched and that means that when the loons are getting onto the raft they don't have to contend with the eye bolts and they don't have to contend with the ends of the boards. So both of those just to make it smooth and entry as possible for the loons. And you just want to go into the log enough so the threads aren't showing anymore. And that way you'll be sure it's secure for the anchor lines. Okay well now that we have all the decking on and the eye bolts in place we have a finished base that can be deployed out onto the lake. Hello my name is Reid Robinson and I started this project as an independent study at school. I had three goals in mind. The first one was to have the platforms be eco-friendly so I used the materials that were either made from recycled materials or were also recyclable. My next goal was for them to be very durable so I used a lot of marine grade industrial materials. And my third goal was for it to be light on land so it could be easily movable but also be heavy in the water so it would be stable. And so I was able to accomplish this by making this much more modular which we can see as we build this raft. So this is Laura Robinson who is also my mom. So an important thing to understand about the rafts is that they are not bird houses. It would be very very dangerous to put a loon raft in a territory without study. So while we make these available to the conservation groups we don't make them available to the general public because of the studying that needs to be done. So what happens is the birds are observed for three years and if they if their nest fails for three years in a row or three years out of five then they become eligible for a platform. If that problem is actually something that the platform will solve predation by mammals these can help. It's not perfect but they can certainly help because it gets them off the mainland and out onto the water where it's harder for the mammals to swim and get them. Okay so when the parts arrive they're gonna arrive not necessarily as a kit but more as a pile. One of the first things are the eco composite beams which will be used for structural support and also holding the planting boxes. Next is the base which is a trap wire box which is filled with foam beams which are used commonly for oyster farms. So most loon nesting rafts have an avian guard which is a piece of trap wire that goes up over the top and that keeps the eagles from coming in and attacking either the eating the eggs when the bird is off nest or else attacking the bird while it's on nest. So this is an interesting setup because rather than having a wire avian guard the avian guard is made from natural plants and those plants are grown in these planting boxes where which have deep enough area for the roots to really take hold. So you can get a good size sapling growing up which is what you'll need to keep an eagle from landing on the nest. So the planting boxes ultimately will rest on either side and then large plants can be planted that can then arch over the the platform itself. So when it arrives the pile that you're going to have has these eco composite beams planting boxes. Two large pieces of trap wire they come together to make this box and inside are these oyster floats where we get all of the positive flotation. Next step is we just have to take pretty much everything apart. So the next step is going to be to skewer the eco composite beams through the raft. So we'll start with just on one end. They can be a little tight so we got to wiggle it in there. And then we'll begin to put in the first layer of foam beam. So we'll start by the first after the first eco composite beam we'll just stick in two and then skewer in another eco composite beam. We'll then use three foam beams and then we'll skewer through another eco composite beam. And all this is about just setting up a pattern that basically evenly spaces these eco composites while at the same time obeying the grid that's set up with the trap wire and the dimensions that are set up by the foam beams. So we get two more in there and our last eco composite. So the next step is filling in the holes and you can see there's rather irregularly sized gaps on the right side here. And so we're going to cut the foam so that it'll exactly fit between eco composites. So because the foam is flexible precision is not really all that important because you can just oversize it a bit and squish it and pop it into place. These foam beams are used in oyster farming or are used in oyster farms so they're meant to be extremely durable and especially with sand like the ocean. What one of their biggest weaknesses is that they are sensitive to UV light so if these rashes are being stored for a long period of time it's important to place them under something like a tarp. However when they're being used as a raft because they'll be covered in dirt they won't be exposed to the sun. When working with sustainable materials it was tough because foam is something that is frightening and you need to really look at the history so together we researched the history of these things. These are fully recyclable curbside and that was really important to us. So these are the hog rings and the hog ring pliers which we use for fastening the rafts. So the hog rings will fit really easily just into the pliers and then we start always by fastening each corner because the fit of the trap wire box is always a little bit difficult. We tend to use opposite corners just to make ensure that everything is even. So we pull together the ends placing the fastener just around either two ends of these boxes. We can just squeeze them really tightly and it should give a really nice and secure attachment. So sometimes when the trap wire isn't cooperating very nicely you can easily just push them together and then by just curling the the hog ring around the trap wire and then just a simple squeeze and it should attach quite nicely. So we tend to attach these just about every six inches along each of the seams and it's important that you just don't forget a seam. So this is just attaching the end caps of the planting boxes to the planting box and this is just done using hog rings. It's really important that you don't attach the planting boxes now because the whole point of the raft is that it's modular. So when these are planted they will weigh 60 pounds. So the idea is you bring this these two to the waterfront and this separately you float the raft and then once the raft is floating then you can bring these and put them on. And so these we don't attach with hog rings. If you did there'd be an issue of trying to get the thing off at the end of the season it'd be pretty tough. So we just use zip ties. Well so now that we've built the rafts now we're ready to start choosing lakes where we're going to be placing them. So we're here at this lake today, a gorgeous sunny day and we've chosen this site for a number of reasons. So this is our good candidate for a raft because the loons here have been failing for at least three years at nesting and that alone doesn't make this a good site for a raft but there's some other characteristics as well. So if they're not hatching chicks because either the lake levels are fluctuating so much that they're getting stranded or they're getting flooded or if there are lots of land mammals that are predating the eggs or the chicks then that's another reason why this is a good site for a raft. So then the last piece is more a human piece. So that one if loons are getting their nests washed out by boatwakes that can be another reason for a raft. If they're nesting at a site that's very recreational so no matter what they're going to get a lot of disturbance and that can help make nests fail that's a good reason to put a raft in. I'm Jill Marinacci I'm here with Maine Audubon as a loon restoration biologist. Today we're building a modular raft to be launched. The first step here is we're going to build the nest bowl. We're going to form kind of like a cushion for the loons to nest in with this moss and then we're also going to plant some of these grass plugs that will grow in and give a little bit more cover inside the nest bowl. After the nest bowl is created we're going to weave pine and cedar branches through the avian guard. This will give protection from avian predators as well as give some protection from the sun that beams down during the summer. Then after that is created we're going to attach these planting boxes to each side of the modular raft and these provide more protection from one the sun beaming on the sides of the raft as well as waves that come in and splash up the sides of the raft. Once we get enough on top of that oyster mesh you can smooth it out to create one even layer and then once we get that we can gauge how much more we need to create the nest bowl. Okay so now we can start forming the moss around the nest bowl and the main idea of the moss is to try to keep it so none of the soil is getting washed away with the oncoming waves. All right so what you can see here is that we've created the nest bowl inside the platform this is where the loons want to come in nest and outside of the nest bowl we've placed all the moss that will hopefully keep all the soil in check so any rogue wave does not completely wipe it out and now we have some branches that we can weave through the avian garden. My name is Earl Johnson I'm going to talk a little bit about how we choose where to put a raft. One of the top considerations is that it's close to a nest that has failed in the past because we know if if the loons have chosen a spot that means they like it and are more likely to use a raft in that area. Other considerations are the depth of the water around the rafts we like it to be somewhere in the two to six foot range and are hoping for a spot in between 10 and 50 feet from shore depending on boat traffic and waves in the area so there are considerations like if it's going to be a super high traffic area and there's fishing boats going around we don't want them to be going between the raft and shore so in that situation the raft needs to be a little bit closer to shore. Another consideration is strong winds are important to to know where the winds coming from so that we can position the raft to not take the brunt of the wind and waves so there's less chance of the raft being flooded. Another point to consider is that nests that have historically been predated by mammals might need to be a little bit further from shore to discourage mammals swimming out and getting into the eggs. When choosing a nest tonight you want to be sure that it's well within the resident pairs territory and not near the edges because if you put it near the edges and a pair decides to use it it might end up being on the border of two pairs territories and encourage territorial disputes which is probably going to lower productivity which is the opposite of what we're trying to solve with the rafts. So we just had a successful raft deployment we towed out our modular raft with the canoe we got it about 20 feet from shore which is about average for where we're placing these rafts. We got about four to five feet deep to allow the water level to move to make sure the raft is successful and we also were sure to make sure we placed the anchor lines kitty corner to make sure that the loon said the nice lake vista that they prefer when they're nesting. You want to anchor on each corner of the raft so that once the wind pushes it it's pushing it in the angle that you want for the raft to be facing the lake and then you have to loop them through clamping down with our socket wrench and then make sure your anchor lines are secured so successful day and hopefully another loon pair will come and check it out soon. So the next step is our monitoring program we're hoping that each raft gets monitored at least once per week you're basically checking to see if the loons are taken to it at first which territories align with where the raft is and then after that you're looking to see if they're choosing it to nest and then you are sure to record the big dates like when the chicks first show up, when the eggs first show up before that and then once the chicks leave the nest. And then at the end of the monitoring season we're going to take the rafts out and then prepare for next year. With the rafts we're doing this year we're hoping to add some next year and continue to gather all this data on whether or not the loon pairs are taken to these rafts. This is going to help us determine whether these rafts are working to help loons produce chicks and then every year is going to be a little bit different we're going to keep learning from each raft that goes out so next year will be a whole new story. Well we're really excited to work with you on this project we've been wanting to introduce a project for a long time that works with increasing loon productivity and also increasing survival of loons on mains lakes so we really want to thank you for all of your effort. We know this is a very involved project but just know that you're making a big difference for the loons in our state. For more information visit mainautobahn.org or email us at loonrestoration at mainautobahn.org