Swamp rose-mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 12

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Acknowledgements and Authorities Contacted

Given the time constraints for this report, it was impossible for the authors to visit all of the original sites. It therefore greatly improved the quality of this update to have those botanists familiar with specific sites for H. moscheutos give so freely of their information. The authors thank the following people for supplying information critical to updating this species: Yvette Bree, who specifically counted plants and characterized the habitat of the Hibiscus at site # 51 for this update; John Haggeman, who provided his data on Hibiscus for several of the Lake St. Clair stations, and guided the senior author to key sites in 2002; Mike Oldham, who surveyed the populations at sites # 26, and 42, including GPSing the sub-populations at the latter; Allen Woodliffe, who provided his data for all the stations in the vicinity of Rondeau, the Pelee Island stations, and for sites # 2 and 5; Gerry Waldron, who provided his data for several stations in Essex County, and guided the senior author to key sites in 2002. Several other people contributed information on their observations of Hibiscus populations. They are: Paul Ashley, Madeline Austen, Dr. Jane Bowles, Sandy Dobbyn, Rob Eberly, Albert Garofalo, Donald Kirk, Dan Lebedyk, George Meyers, and Melinda Thompson. Don Bucholtz, Superintendent at Sandbanks Provincial Park, ensured that current data on site # 51 was provided to the senior author, as per an E-mail request. Mary Gartshore kindly made the contact for the senior author with Rob Eberly and Albert Garofalo. Ian Jean accompanied the senior author to inspections of sites # 1, 50, and the Hasting Road stations in 2002. Vicki McKay, Species-at-Risk Biologist at Point Pelee National Park kept an eye out for first flowering of Hibiscus and alerted the senior author to permit proper scheduling of field time.

Kelly Ramster and Mike Oldham of the NHIC also provided element occurrence data from the NHIC database for every known station, as well as conservation status ranks. Ilo-Katryn Maimets, York University Library, was extremely helpful in accessing the York University and University of Toronto databases to search for papers on Swamp rose-mallow and in suggesting ‘good sites’ in general to search. Paul Jurjans, GIS Specialist at Midhurst MNR, graciously converted a number of UTMs in NAD 83 to NAD 27. Laurie Maynard, Canadian Wildlife Service offered some very helpful suggestions on the report, and supplied the senior author with additional current papers on Phragmites australis. Topographical maps were loaned to the senior author by Mary Gartshore and Peter Carson for the Niagara stations, and Allen Woodliffe provided copies of the infrared photos for sites # 8 and 39 to permit calculations of the areas of occurrence, and provided the pertinent pages on Hibiscus from the Kamstra study of the Pelee Islands. Dr. Erich Haber is thanked for establishing the contract and for providing COSEWIC report formats and criteria. Erich also scanned the maps and slides for the report, and incorporated changes in the various drafts.

The senior author would like to thank Mary Gartshore and Peter Carson for their generosity in providing accomodation at their home during the field surveys in the Long Point area; and to Svenya Hansen for arranging for lodging at the research cabin at Point Pelee during the Essex County fieldwork. Finally, the author thanks his very young, but very valued field assistant, Ms. Sydney Allen. Her companionship during our six-day road trip to undertake fieldwork for this report made the whole project worth doing.

Funding for the preparation of this status report was provided by the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada.

Authorities contacted

P. Ashley. 2002-2003. Paul is the Wildlife Area Manager for the Big Creek and Long Point National Wildlife Areas, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada. Paul provided information on all of the stations in the vicinity of Long Point.

J. Bowles. 2002-2003. Jane is a professor of botany at the University of Western Ontario, a consulting biologist, and an expert on the flora of southwestern Ontario. 22154 Fairview Road, R.R. #3, Thorndale, Ontario N0M 2P0. Jane provided information and GPS coordinates for Hibiscus from her 2002 field surveys at Hahn Marsh.

Y. Bree. 2002. Yvette is the Park Naturalist at Sandbanks Provincial Park. She provided detailed data from her 2002 inspection of the Hibiscus station in Sandbanks.

S. Dobbyn. 2002-2003. Sandy is the Park Naturalist at Rondeau Provincial Park. He provided the summary information from previous field surveys on Hibiscus at Rondeau.

R. Eberly. 2002. Rob is a member of the Bert Miller Fort Erie Nature Club and an expert on the flora of the Niagara Region.

A. Garofalo. 2002-2003. Albert is an expert on the flora of the Niagara Region. He provided information from his 2002 field inspection of the Lake Gibson station.

J. Haggeman. 2002-2003. John is the Wildlife Area Manager for the St. Clair National Wildlife Area, Bear Creek Unit, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada. He provided information on the several stations in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent section of Lake St. Clair and guided the senior author to the key sites during a field day in August 2002.

D. Kirk. 2002. Donald is the Natural Heritage Ecologist with Guelph District of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He is an expert on the flora of southwestern Ontario. He was able to direct the senior author to the appropriate people for information on the Gibson Lake station.

D. Lebedyk. 2002. Dan is the Conservation Biologist for the Essex Region Conservation Authority, 360 Fairview Ave. West, Essex, Ontario. N8M 1Y6. Tel: (519) 776-5209 ext. 409. He provided information on all known stations in Essex County from ERCA’s Environmentally Significant Areas database.

G. Meyers. 2002. George is an expert on the flora of the Niagara Region. 7 Bedford Park Drive, Grimsby, Ontario. He provided information on the Jordan Harbour, Port Weller, and Lake Gibson stations.

M.J. Oldham. 2002-2003. Botanist/Herpetologist. Natural Heritage Information Centre, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 300 Water Street, 2^nd floor, North Tower, P.O. Box 7000, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 8M5. Mike specifically recorded the populations of Hibiscus at Point Pelee and Rondeau, gathered during his family vacation, and provided the information for these, including GPS locations of the latter.

P.D. Pratt. 2002-2003. Paul is the Chief Naturalist for the City of Windsor and an expert on the flora of southwestern Ontario. City of Windsor, Dept. of Parks & Recreation, 2450 McDougall Road, Windsor, Ontario N8X 3N6.

Dr. A.A. Reznicek. 2002-2003. Professor and Curator of the Herbarium. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. Tony was contacted during the preparation of the original report.

M. Thompson. 2002. Melinda is Species-at-Risk Biologist with Guelph District of the Ministry of Natural Resources. She provided information on her inspection of the Lake Gibson station.

G.E. Waldron. 2002-2003. Gerry is a private Consulting Ecologist and an expert on the flora of Essex County. R.R. #1, Amherstburg, Ontario N9V 2Y7. Gerry drew several stations to the senior author’s attention, and guided him to a few of these during a field day in 2002.

P. Allen Woodliffe. 2002-2003. Allen is an Ecologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Chatham, and is an expert on the flora of southwestern Ontario. Allen provided data on a number of the stations, in particular those at Rondeau and Shrewsbury, those on Pelee and east Sister Islands, and the St. Thomas Waterworks.