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Miami Herald
18 hours ago
- General
- Miami Herald
Shorebirds in Florida are losing habitat. Living shorelines are part of the solution
Editor's note: Before this story was published, Shiloh Schulte, a senior shorebird scientist with Manomet Conservation Sciences, died in a helicopter crash while in Alaska doing conservation work. Schulte coordinated the American Oystercatcher Working Group, the multi-state species recovery partnership to which Florida belongs. Even as populations dwindle for hundreds of bird species across the United States, there are some success stories taking flight: like for the American oystercatcher, one of Florida's most iconic — and threatened — shorebirds. Compared to 15 years ago, the oystercatcher population that breeds along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts is up 43%, according to the American Bird Conservancy. There are nearly 15,000 oystercatchers in North America today,compared to about 10,000 in 2008, according to Shiloh Schulte, a former senior shorebird scientist with Manomet Conservation Sciences. It's a welcome outlier in the world of shorebird conservation, Schulte said. 'Shorebirds, as a species group, are declining rapidly. And oystercatchers are one of the few that's not.' Schulte first began working with American oystercatchers in the early 2000s, when he participated in an expansive aerial survey of North American shorebirds revealing the species was at risk. 'We flew the whole coast, the Atlantic coast and then the Gulf, in a little Cessna at about 400 feet up.' The initial national survey revealed oystercatchers were threatened by habitat loss, Schulte said. The species doesn't move inland, depending on coastal habitats and forage to survive. Before long, Schulte started coordinating the multi-state working group credited for helping drive oystercatchers' gains since 2008. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is involved in the working group, and so is the Florida Shorebird Alliance, a statewide network of local partnerships focused on shorebird and seabird conservation. Within the network, volunteers contribute to the state's long-term monitoring data by helping survey and count bird populations throughout the year. Volunteer David Hartgrove was one of the FSA's very first members. Today, Hartgrove is co-conservation chair for Halifax River Audubon, one of three Audubon Florida chapters in Volusia County. For about 20 years now, Hartgrove has been monitoring oystercatchers who nest on the Halifax River in Port Orange, he said one June morning from a pavilion at Port Orange Causeway Park. Steps away from the park's fishing pier and boat launch, Hartgrove uses a spotting scope — basically, a telescope — to view nesting oystercatchers on three spoil islands (one of which is a state-designated Critical Wildlife Area). 'If I've got oystercatchers that I know are incubating eggs over here, I'll be here three or four times a week, at least,' Hartgrove said. Right now, in late June, most young oystercatchers have hatched and are getting ready to fly. Holding onto habitat Looking collectively at all the years he's been tracking oystercatchers in Port Orange, Hartgrove said, the population appears relatively stable. 'It's not going up, it's not going down. It's pretty much staying the same all the time,' Hartgrove said. An oystercatcher parent and two chicks stand on a spoil island serving as a nesting site in Mosquito Lagoon, the northernmost section of the Indian River Lagoon, on May 27, 2025. That's despite a range of threats facing shorebirds in Florida, from predators and human interference to nest overwash from storms and rising high tides. On the Nature Coast, which draws in the largest concentration of wintering oystercatchers each year, longer-lasting high tides corresponded with a 7.3% decline in annual survival over 12 years, according to a 2023 study by FWC researchers. Co-author Janell Brush with FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute leads the agency's research on seabirds and shorebirds. For Brush, the study's results underscore what she said is her biggest concern for oystercatchers in Florida: habitat loss. 'With the tides getting higher and higher, less habitat is available for oystercatchers at high tide,' Brush said. 'With the degradation of coastal habitats due to repeated storms and erosion, we've been focusing our attention more on: how can we restore and enhance the habitats where these birds want to be?' Ideally, oystercatchers will return to the same nesting site year after year, preferably while keeping their distance from other oystercatchers (although if the habitat is just too good to pass up, like at Cedar Key, they'll begrudgingly nest in closer quarters together, Brush said). But as Florida becomes increasingly developed, especially near the coast, prime nesting habitat is getting harder to come by. 'The more developed an area you have, the less suitable habitat that you have that's available for species like oystercatchers to nest,' Brush said. Oystercatchers like to nest in low-lying coastal areas, above the high tide line. And it's especially key for their nesting habitat to be near a food source, which for oystercatchers is primarily (and perhaps unsurprisingly) oysters. 'The closer that food source is to the oystercatchers and oystercatcher chicks, the more likely those chicks are going to survive,' Brush said. Unlike most shorebird babies, young oystercatchers can't feed themselves right away. They need time to learn their parents' technique for cracking open mollusk shells, and for their beaks to grow long enough to do so. In the meantime, oystercatcher parents take turns watching their young and foraging for food nearby — which, in Central Florida, usually means a trip to the nearest oyster reef. Supporting a 'habitat mosaic' Globally, a majority of oyster habitats have been lost, due largely to decades of overharvesting and coastal urbanization. Reflecting this trend, the Indian River Lagoon has lost about 63% of its oyster reef acreage since 1943, according to Linda Walters, a marine biology professor at the University of Central Florida. Since 2007, Walters and the lab she runs at UCF have been working to restore oyster reefs in the lagoon's northernmost section, the Mosquito Lagoon. Boating activity and sea level rise have caused damage, breaking up reefs into smaller pieces and reducing the estuary's overall oyster coverage. That loss can have big consequences for a complex marine ecosystem like the Indian River Lagoon. 'Oysters filter the water. They make it so the seagrass can thrive, which makes it so the fish can thrive, and the crabs, the other invertebrates,' Walters said. To put it simply, more oysters means a healthier lagoon. That, in turn, is as good for ecotourism as it is for shorebirds who depend on the estuary for habitat and to forage for food, Walters said. 'The more good habitat we have, the more birds we'll have,' Walters said. The oyster reef restorations led by Walters and completed in collaboration with local conservation and community partners have translated to documented habitat improvements in and around the Mosquito Lagoon, according to UCF. But this work supporting the estuary's 'habitat mosaic,' as Walters calls it, hasn't stopped with oyster reefs. Seagrass restoration is the newest layer of Walters's conservation work, which in 2011 also began to include living shoreline projects. Living shorelines are a type of green infrastructure technique, using native vegetation and other natural materials to stabilize shorelines against erosion while enhancing biodiversity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Walters described it as 'the least destructive way to protect a shoreline.' 'We are trying to get it back to what it was naturally,' Walters said. 'So as opposed to using any sort of hard armoring, [like] a seawall or putting really large rocks out, this is the low-tech way to protect your shoreline.' Seawalls, living shorelines and hybrid solutions Seawalls are hard structures, usually made of concrete or metal, installed along shorelines to protect against erosion. They can be very effective at stabilizing coastal areas, at least for a time. But seawalls also have some big drawbacks, including for wildlife habitat, according to Jason Evans, an ecologist by training who runs Stetson University's Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience. 'We've simplified these ecosystems,' Evans said. 'We've gone in and destroyed enormous amounts of coastal wetlands in Florida, [by] putting in these seawalls.' Shorebirds tend to avoid seawalls and other man-made structures built to defend shorelines from sea level rise and erosion, according to some studies, including one from the United States Geological Survey. Some creatures, like barnacles, can survive on a seawall. But generally, the hard-armoring technique tends to make marine ecosystems less productive, Evans said. 'They're very poor habitat, compared to what the natural habitat would be.' Hardening a shoreline can displace important organisms, like oysters, which are in themselves 'natural stabilizers of shorelines,' Evans said. In the long-term, seawalls can actually make erosion worse, especially along sandy beaches, where waves crashing against one side of the seawall can scour out sand on the other side. 'You oftentimes will lose your beach a lot faster because of the seawall,' Evans said. A quarter of Florida's seawall permits issued since 2004 are for structures in Volusia County, where Mosquito Lagoon begins, according to a 2024 analysis commissioned by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Mosquito Lagoon stretches south into Brevard County, which prohibits the installation of new shoreline hardening structures except in emergency situations. Good for birds, good for fish — and good for us In certain cases, seawalls might be the best way to stabilize a shoreline, Evans said: such as at a port, where huge waves are constantly rolling in from ship traffic. But generally, he said, living shorelines are a highly effective, more environmentally friendly — and, often, more affordable — solution. '[It's] a win-win,' Evans said. 'We're getting the fisheries back that we want, we're getting the water quality back that we want. We're getting those benefits, and we're also getting the benefit of reduced amounts of erosion.' Hybrid solutions, like a buried seawall, can also be an effective alternative to fully hardening a shoreline, Evans said. For those structures, a hardened seawall serves as the core, buried beneath a sandy dune layer that often features native vegetation more conducive to wildlife habitat. For oystercatchers in the Mosquito Lagoon, a living shoreline can serve as valuable high ground for the birds to roost during high tide, without straying far from the oyster reefs they depend on for food. And a living system of mangroves and marsh grasses comes with another superpower, Evans said: built-in resilience. The native plants' roots help hold sediment from the lagoon in place, effectively allowing the land to 'grow up.' 'Even as the sea rises, then your mangroves can, in theory, keep up with it, because they're grabbing sediments,' Evans said. 'Just like a seawall is engineered, living shorelines are engineered: to stabilize, to withstand storms, and even in some cases to withstand a little bit of sea level rise.' Shorelines and beaches naturally shift over time, drifting and changing shape with the winds and waves. That makes a living shoreline's capacity to adapt to its surroundings — unlike a static seawall — one of its biggest strengths, said Melinda Donnelly, an assistant research scientist and biology professor at UCF who works with Walters. Right now, Donnelly is working on a model to help predict where in the Indian River Lagoon living shorelines are most likely to succeed, based on variables like tidal conditions and wave energy thresholds for different plants. Many previous living shoreline projects have largely relied on trial and error, Donnelly said. The goal is for the model to help maximize time and resources when planning how to stabilize a shoreline, and ultimately 'end up with sort of a combination of methods, rather than just basically hardening every shoreline throughout the lagoon,' Donnelly said. Especially over time, more living shorelines will translate to a healthier lagoon ecosystem overall, Walters said. That means more attractive shorebird habitat. 'It's good for birds, it's good for fish. It's good for commercial species, recreational species,' Walters said. 'It's good for all the plants and just everything in the lagoon. So basically, it means it's good for us.' 'A lot of potential' Moving forward, managing the species' continued recovery in Florida will require prioritizing ways to help nesting oystercatchers. Right now, there are only 419 breeding adults documented statewide, according to Brush with FWC. In 2013, there were also fewer than 500, according to the agency's species action plan. 'Because there's not that many birds, every single nesting pair is important. And every time you get a new nesting pair entering the breeding population, that's huge,' Brush said. Specifically along the Atlantic coast in Central Florida, there is great opportunity to help grow oystercatcher populations, Brush said. 'In general, where we are seeing birds try to enter the breeding population in great numbers [in Florida] is along the Atlantic coast.' But the challenge of habitat loss and degradation persists, especially as Central Florida's coasts are developed and hardened. If more oystercatchers here are to grow and breed successfully, improving habitat conditions will be critical. 'At some point, we will be limited by available habitat,' Brush said. 'There's a lot of potential to grow the population of oystercatchers on the Atlantic coast … if we have some more resources to dedicate toward habitat enhancement and restoration.' While resources are limited, Brush said, FWC is adept at making good use of them. 'We're constantly in FWC keeping the pulse on how species are doing, and where we need to allocate resources where species may not be doing as well.' One huge part of that equation, Brush said, is partnership. The national oystercatcher working group helps foster collaboration between states. 'We watched our local population improve in Florida as part of that network,' Brush said. 'The state of Florida can't do it without our conservation partners.' A culture of partnership will be crucial to continuing American oystercatchers' recovery, according to conservation experts. Although oystercatchers have made promising gains in the last 15 years, the work is by no means over. The (flight) path forward: 'It takes a village' Oystercatchers continue to face existential threats, from predators like rats and raccoons to habitat loss caused by human interference, sea level rise and storms. 'The difference is we as a working group have discovered many of the ways to manage and mitigate many of those threats, as long as we have people in the field doing that work,' Schulte said. That last piece is critical — and a growing concern for wildlife experts like Schulte, as the Trump administration's sweeping 'waste-reduction' measures usher longtime experts out of staff positions and interrupt some grant-funded projects already underway. It's not uncommon for conservation funds to fluctuate between (and sometimes during) presidential administrations, Schulte said. But this time is different. 'There's always uncertainty. It's never been like: 'We're stopping everything,' and no necessary guarantee as to whether it's going back,' Schulte said. 'We haven't seen that before, at all, where a project that's underway gets canceled.' Nationally and within states where oystercatchers breed, including Florida, government agencies are now missing some core personnel who made up the 'bedrock' of shorebird conservation, Schulte said. 'We're seeing it kind of everywhere, especially with state and federal employees, who are usually the most consistent and stable aspect of the group,' Schulte said in late May. 'Some of these people were coordinating multiple sets of volunteers, or out there in the field themselves, doing a lot of this assessment work.' Departing experts take with them a depth of specialized knowledge, often built up over decades of fieldwork and experience. 'It's a huge loss. And it's hard to quantify,' Schulte said. 'It's not universal. But it's very widespread, and it is having significant impacts on our ability to do basic conservation work.' Fewer experienced people in the field means fewer, less robust assessments of shorebird health, Schulte said. 'We actually won't know as much information about how well the birds are doing … or what the challenges are.' Restoring shorebird populations is a long-term commitment, Schulte said. Even in the smoothest of political climates, armed with the newest and best science, conservation experts know their work is bound to involve a certain level of uncertainty. Instead of running away from the inevitable, Brush, with FWC, said she focuses on learning from the (literally) changing tides. 'We need to keep looking for opportunities while we're navigating the uncertainty. 'That uncertainty is always looming,' Brush said. 'When a storm hits, you have to be looking for opportunity as you're evaluating your habitat loss.' Adaptation is no strange concept in a state where hurricanes routinely ravage and refashion coastlines and communities. Still, the ability to quickly pivot and seek out new possible solutions requires a strong foundation, like the network of partners making up the oystercatcher working group. And citizen scientists, like Hartgrove in Port Orange, are also 'absolutely instrumental' to shorebird recovery, Brush said. 'It takes a village,' Brush said. 'There's always opportunities. You just have to look for them.'
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Conservationist Shiloh Schulte, of Kennebunk, dies in research helicopter crash in Alaska
A conservationist from Kennebunk, Maine, died in a helicopter crash while conducting conservation work in Alaska. The death of Shiloh Schulte, PhD,, who previously served as an elected official in Kennebunk, was announced by the Manomet Conservation Sciences. A GoFundMe has been set up to support his family, including his wife and two daughters. He was 46. "Shiloh was a lifelong birdwatcher, conservationist, and scientist whose passion for the natural world was infectious," the GoFundMe, co-organized by Jonah Jill Schulte reads. "From a young age, he could be found exploring forests and wetlands with binoculars in hand, always eager to discover and share the wonders of the avian world. His dedication to protecting shorebirds and their habitats took him to some of the most remote and challenging environments on Earth, where he worked tirelessly to ensure a future for these vulnerable species." Schulte previously served on the Kennebunk Select Board. Schulte was elected chairman of the board in July 2022. At the time, his colleagues said he had a "really great way about him to move things forward, regardless of where he is on the spectrum of an issue.' Schulte's work with the Manomet Conservation Sciences included working as the coordinator for the American Oystercatcher Recovery Program. He is credited with rebuilding the American Oystercatcher, a large shorebird once believed to be locally extirpated, by 45%. "Shiloh gave his life in the service of something greater than himself, dedicating himself to preserving the natural world for future generations," the Manomet Conservation Sciences said. His family said he will be remembered as more than a scientist. "Shiloh was so much more than a scientist," the GoFundMe page states. "He was a devoted husband and father, a loving son and brother, a generous neighbor, and a pillar of his community. Whether he was helping a neighbor with yard work, leading the town Select Board, running a marathon or inspiring others through his photography and storytelling, Shiloh gave his all—always with a warm heart and boundless energy." This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kennebunk biologist Shiloh Schulte dies in Alaskan helicopter crash
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kennebunk mourns loss of Shiloh Schulte: 'He's the kind of person you want in the world'
KENNEBUNK, Maine — As the community mourns the death of Shiloh Schulte, one of its most liked, respected, and dedicated citizens, there is one word that Select Board member Kortney Nedeau says describes the loss. 'It's immeasurable,' Nedeau said. 'It's just such a shock. He was the kind of person you want in the world.' Schulte, 46, died in a helicopter crash while conducting conservation work in Alaska on June 4. As outpourings from the community have shown, the former chair of the Kennebunk Select Board will long be cherished and remembered as a kind, energetic, and generous man who was devoted to his family, dedicated to his hometown, and passionate about celebrating and protecting nature, especially its birds. On social media, for example, Nedeau provided a heartfelt example of Schulte's impact as a community member and his ability to inspire others. She said Schulte was one of the reasons that she ran for a seat on the Select Board five years ago. 'He was encouraging, courageous, genuine, even-tempered, and fair,' Nedeau wrote in a post. 'It was such an honor to serve the town of Kennebunk in such a thankless job with someone who understood our work was above ourselves ... He was so humble, insightful, and honest.' Nedeau expanded on Schulte's character during an interview. 'He was unassuming,' she said. 'He was always listening first and was the last to speak. He always rose to the occasion. He always showed up.' And his impact went well beyond Kennebunk, Nedeau noted, so much so that she imagined that the duties of small-town government and community volunteering must have been a 'piece of cake' when compared to the hard work he accomplished throughout the world. More: Conservationist Shiloh Schulte, of Kennebunk, dies in research helicopter crash in Alaska Schulte worked with Manomet Conservation Sciences, a Massachusetts-based organization dedicated to using 'science and collaboration to improve the health of flyways, coastal ecosystems, and working land and seas,' according to its website. Among his contributions, Schulte coordinated the organization's American Oystercatcher Recovery Program and is credited with helping to rebuild the presence of that large shorebird – once believed to be completely out of existence locally – by as much as 45%. Nedeau said she and her colleagues on the Select Board would always know where Schulte would be come summertime as they worked out their meeting schedule for June, July, and August. Schulte, she said, would always tell them, 'I'll be in a tent, in the Arctic, unreachable – so do whatever works best for you guys.' Indeed, with June here, Schulte was in Alaska, pursuing his passions, fulfilling his commitment to protecting nature, and meeting his responsibility to future generations. 'Shiloh gave his life in the service of something greater than himself, dedicating himself to preserving the natural world for future generations," Manomet Conservation Sciences said in a statement announcing the tragedy. Schulte also was an avid and accomplished runner, who became the top Maine finisher of the Boston Marathon in 2019, completing the race in two hours and 39 minutes, according to the Dirigo Run Club, to which he belonged. In a social media post, the club described Schulte as 'known to always have a smile on his face' and as a 'fierce competitor.' Schulte served on the Kennebunk Select Board for a few years before ascending to the chair in the summer of 2022. Nedeau nominated him for the post, praising him as someone who knew how to lead a meeting, and who had a 'really great way about him to move things forward, regardless of where he is on the spectrum of an issue.' Schulte succeeded longtime Select Board member Blake Baldwin as chair. Anyone who followed the Select Board meetings during Baldwin's tenure could see the respect and esteem Baldwin had for Schulte and for the contributions he made to the discussions and hard decisions about town issues. 'He was the cool head that calmed troubled waters,' Baldwin said during a phone interview. 'For that, I was grateful to have him on the board, not just as a colleague but as a friend.' A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Schulte's family, including his wife and their two daughters. The GoFundMe campaign has a goal of $45,000. By the early afternoon of June 9, a total of $39,062 already had been raised. On the GoFundMe page, Schulte's family also refers to his passion for the natural world, describing him as an explorer of forests, wetlands and birds since an early age. Importantly, though, Schulte was more than a scientist, his family says on the fundraising page. 'He was a devoted husband and father, a loving son and brother, a generous neighbor, and a pillar of his community,' they said. 'Shiloh gave his all – always with a warm heart and a boundless energy.' In his interview, Baldwin also spoke of what Schulte was and always will be, not just to him, but to others. He spoke of Schulte's compassion for other people. In describing the impact that Schulte had, Baldwin referred to one of the most beloved movies of all time, 'It's a Wonderful Life.' In that Christmas classic, Clarence, the angel who is trying to earn his wings, explains to George Bailey, who wished he had never been born, what happens when people lose someone they love. Some people leave a big hole, Clarence said. Some people are part of your soul, Baldwin said, and when they are gone, 'they leave a big hole.' Said Baldwin, 'Shiloh is one of those people.' This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kennebunk mourns loss former Select Board chair Shiloh Schulte
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kennebunk wildlife biologist had passion for conservation and community
Jun. 9—Shiloh Schulte's family often found him exploring the woods, binoculars in hand, when he was growing up. His childhood interest in wildlife turned into a career in biology and a love for birds that his family adopted. Though his parents and four siblings are spread out across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, they say one object outside of their homes ties them to Schulte: bird feeders. The 46-year-old from Kennebunk, who has worked on several projects across the country to preserve landbird, seabird and shorebird populations, died in a helicopter crash Wednesday while conducting conservation work in Alaska to survey and record birds. "It's just such a tragedy, there was so much more that he could have done for the world and would have done," his brother Jonah Schulte said. "All we can do is hope to be even a little glimmer of what he was at trying to help." Shiloh Schulte, who most recently worked for the Massachusetts-based research nonprofit Manomet Conservation Sciences, was known in the company for his efforts to restore the American Oystercatcher population by 45%, according to a statement posted to social media. On the day of the crash, Schulte and the helicopter pilot, who also died, were flying from Prudhoe Bay to a remote area of Alaska's North Slope, according to the Boston Globe. The crash occurred on the first day of the study. 'KENNEBUNK SURELY LOST A GOOD ONE' His friends and family said his passion for conservation and community was infectious. Schulte lived in Kennebunk with his wife, 15-year-old daughter Caelyn and 18-year-old daughter Lorien, as well as his sister, Jill, and her young children. When he wasn't traveling for work, Schulte made efforts to be involved in his community, whether it was hosting potlucks or making friends in running groups, his wife, Shevaun Schulte, said. Every spring, she said, he and his family threw neighborhood parties to collect and boil down maple sap. As a father, his wife said, Shiloh Schulte instilled a love of learning in his children, and the family often traveled and went camping together. Loved ones are seeking donations through GoFundMe to support his family. Lorien Schulte said her father enjoyed reading, and was especially fond of "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Even off the clock, she said, he loved to photograph birds and share them on his Instagram account. Schulte, an avid runner who completed the Boston Marathon several times and finished as the top Maine runner in 2019, also served on Kennebunk's select board from 2015-24. Residents will remember him as a "thoughtful, principled" leader, according to a statement posted to the town's Facebook page. "Shiloh was encouraging, courageous, genuine, even-tempered and fair," Select Board member Kortney Nedeau said in a statement Monday. "Kennebunk surely lost a good one." MAKING FRIENDS ACROSS THE WORLD While "tromping through the tundra" at a camp in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2019, Michael Boardman, of North Yarmouth, said he was surprised to meet Schulte, a "fellow Mainer in the middle of nowhere." Boardman, who was serving as an artist in residence for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he appreciated that Schulte was willing to connect with him, even though he's not an expert in science. He said Schulte's willingness to teach others about the whimbrel, a type of shorebird, resulted in him putting more emotion into his field sketches and paintings. Schulte, he said, was passionate about raising awareness of some shorebirds, working to protect them along their long migration routes. "You may never go to the Arctic, but there's a lot of birds that you see during the course of the summer that do," Boardman said. "If they disappear, the world will be a lesser place." Jonah Schulte said his older brother had made friends across the world, from South America to the Eastern Seaboard. Since his death, he said it's been heartwarming to see comments and stories from people on social media and online who knew him. "There's people everywhere that knew Shiloh," Jonah Schulte said, "and were excited to see and hear from him just because they knew that if he was there, it meant there was a good reason to be there." Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
Boston Globe
07-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Scientist at Plymouth conservation nonprofit dies in remote Alaska crash
Schulte had traveled to Alaska to conduct conservation work, the statement said. He and the helicopter pilot were flying west from Prudhoe Bay to an area where he planned to outfit shorebirds with recording devices when the helicopter crashed on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Manomet Conservation Sciences. The region Schulte was visiting has become a flashpoint in the debate over balancing the nation's energy needs and confronting climate change. The oil company ConocoPhillips wants to establish an oil drilling venture known as the Advertisement Schulte had also planned to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where he was to lead a crew tracking the migratory routes of whimbrels, another shorebird, with satellite transmitters, Manomet Conservation Sciences said. The Advertisement The crash occurred on the first day of the bird study about 20 miles west of Deadhorse in North Slope, the northernmost section of the state, Clint Johnson, chief of the safety board's regional office in Alaska, said Friday. 'It's in a very remote part of Alaska,' Johnson said. 'There's nothing there. It's treeless, barren, in the middle of no place.' Earlier in the week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin toured parts of the North Slope to advocate for President Trump's desire to open parts of the Alaskan wilderness to drilling and mining. The helicopter had taken off at about 10:40 am. The pilot had received special weather clearance, known as VFR, or visual flight rules clearance, Johnson said. North-Slope Borough Search and Rescue traveled to the crash site on Wednesday and retrieved the victims' bodies and on Friday afternoon, NTSB investigators visited the scene, which is only accessible by helicopter, he said. An NTSB meteorologist and air traffic controller are working with investigators, who plan to transport the helicopter wreckage to Deadhorse to continue their work, according to Johnson. Officials plan to place the wreckage in a sling tethered to a helicopter for the journey back to Deadhorse, which has an airport, he said. Advertisement Last Saturday, Schulte shared photographs of Schulte coordinated an American oystercatcher recovery program which was launched in 2009 at Manomet Conservation Sciences. Conservation work by the program and its partners along the East Coast helped to rebuild the American oystercatcher population by 45 percent, the organization said. 'Shiloh gave his life in the service of something greater than himself, dedicating himself to preserving the natural world for future generations,' the group's statement said. In March, Schulte discussed progress in regrowing the population of the American oystercatcher, a striking shorebird with long, orange-red bills and black-and-white plumage who live along the Atlantic and Gulf coast, according to a news release from Manomet Conservation Sciences. In 2008, he said the population had dropped to fewer than 10,000 birds across the Americas, a 10 percent decline. Conservation efforts reversed that slide and there are now more than 14,000 birds. 'This success proves that when we commit to conservation, we can restore declining species,' he said in a statement on March 13. Following the devastating BP oil spill which released millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Schulte led a crew of researchers enlisted by the government to document the spill's environmental impact on wildlife. Schulte's team was hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to locate resident oystercatchers in coastal Louisiana and outfit the oiled ones with radio transmitters to track their health, he told the Globe in 2010. Advertisement He earned a doctorate at North Carolina State University, where he studied American oystercatchers on the Outer Banks and helped to band and track the birds, according to his biography on the website for Manomet Conservation Sciences. As an undergraduate student, Schulte studied wildlife biology at the University of Vermont. He was a competitive distance runner and earned a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, the biography said. In April, he ran the Boston Marathon, finishing the race with a time of 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 50 seconds. The time placed him 137th among 2,386 men between ages 45 and 49 who competed, according to results from the Boston Athletic Association. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at
