You may have visited the Sequim-Dungeness area on the Olympic Peninsula and discovered a wonderful treasure of nutritious vegetables from Nash’s Organic Produce store. The farm and store are owned by Nash Huber. The farm store and produce are beloved institutions. What you may not know is there is a strong relationship between Nash’s organic crops and swans, mostly Trumpeter Swans, that winter in the Sequim/Dungeness area.
Photo: Laura Davis
One of the high commercial value crops is organic winter carrots. Not only do humans desire this sweet, tasty, nutritious food, so do swans. The harvest time for these carrots is from fall through part of January. This overlaps with swans wintering in the area from November through March.
Keeping swans off these special carrots can be challenging. Over the past many years Nash declined to haze the swans. Instead he decided to harvest all the carrots before the swans arrived and put them in cold storage. The carrot crop left in the field was available to the swans without disturbance.
Then came the big snow in January 2019 and the swans did something they have never done before. They got into the Nash farm’s organic broccoli and cauliflower seed crops and destroyed it in just a few days. Ten acres gone and years of work as well as a huge financial loss. To read more about this event click here. The 2020 winter was a bit dicey, but the swans and Nash’s Organic Produce managed to coexist with some carrot loss.
This fall brought the swans and carrots conflict to the forefront. A proactive effort was begun thanks to the efforts of Matt Blankenship, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wildlife conflict specialist and Shelly Ament, WDFW wildlife biologist. In addition, the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society got more involved with the swan/crop issue and volunteered to help with a promising solution to keep swans out of the carrots until the harvest is completed in mid-January 2021.
The OPAS group call themselves The Carrot Protection Crew. The solution: use a technique proven successful to deter swans from using lead shot infested areas of a lake in Whatcom County.
WDFW provided 200 6 ft. plastic stakes upon which volunteers tied mylar bird scare tape toward one end, used duct taped to secure it so it stays put even in the wind and rain. Then took the poles and put them out in the carrot field in a large grid pattern. The field was very muddy, and it was raining on and off during the pole installation. It was an entire day’s effort with many people participating.
Will it work? We think it will keep the swans from flying in, and likely from walking into the area. The CPC is ready to put in more poles if needed. We will keep you posted as to the results. Thank you to OPAS for all your dedication to swan conservation in your area, the years of swan surveys and now the Carrot Protection Crew. A special thank you to the crew members: Liam Antrim, Pam Maurides, Bob and Enid Phreaner, and Laura Davis.
