Project 3 – 2004 KEEP, CCES, US COAST GUARD – LIGHTS ON! 

As the 2004 osprey-nesting season approached, KEEP, CCES Student Technology Leadership Program students and Kentucky Technical Vocational School (KTVS) students got back into action with a continuation and expansion of their osprey project initiated in 2002. Our KEEP project partners hoped to help many more pairs of nesting ospreys while improving public and commercial boating safety, USCG operations and possibly prevent a potential toxic spill into Lake Barkley (Cumberland River) which flows into the Ohio River.  

Once ospreys had been successfully reestablished at Lake Barkley, evident by the mid 90s, osprey pairs began building their large 140 lb average sized nest on top of USCG navigation lights. The nests made the lights inoperable during the six-month nesting season.  Ospreys prefer to nest on man-made structures over water perhaps to be closer to their supply of fish that they eat and to reduce shoreline nest predation from raccoons and great-horned owls. Osprey nesting increases are very beneficial for the osprey population and people since osprey success indicates improved environmental quality. However, many navigation lights were out due to osprey nests on lights. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) donated about a dozen osprey-nesting platforms to the USCG for installation above navigation lights in the mid 90s. Adding new osprey nesting platforms above the navigation lights worked great! Ospreys relocated to the platforms above the lights making it possible for the lights to function properly the entire year. The annual Lake Barkley Osprey Nesting Survey documented from the mid 1990s to 1999 that the osprey nesting population had more than doubled since the last federal agency survey in 1996. Many more navigation lights were documented out during the resumed osprey survey in 1999. KEEP initiated and coordinated a new effort to assist the USCG who expressed tremendous support for help involving student participation. The USCG was spending many hours removing osprey nests from navigation lights after the ospreys migrated from Kentucky by the end of September. Each March migratory ospreys return to Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake and rebuild their nests on navigation lights. Many navigation lights were once again out for six months. KTVS pledged to have welding students available to construct additional needed osprey-nesting platforms based on the design proven successful during the 2003-nesting season.  During 2004, new students could learn through more hands-on involvement. Many more nesting ospreys could be helped with safer nesting structures designed for placement above USCG navigation lights. The base of the platform design was modified to receive the triangular support tower provided by the USCG. The new KEEP/CCES osprey nesting platforms placed by the USCG above navigation lights would contribute significantly in making nighttime commercial and public boating much safer. A potential chemical spill into our rivers would be far less likely to happen with properly working navigation lights operating at night. Not having to remove osprey nests saves the USCG many hours of large nest removal following each nesting season. Additionally, the KEEP/CCES platforms anchor osprey nests protecting the nests from high wind damage or removal during storms saving many eggs and chicks. 

Senior Chief Brian Williams, USCG Officer in Charge invited KEEP, CCES staff and STLP students aboard the USCG cutter “Cimarron” for the special osprey platform project. Chief Williams explained and demonstrated USCG equipment and operations to each new project team making trips aboard the Cimarron - a unique educational experience for students and staff. The Cimarron crew provide and maintain safe navigation systems for hundreds of miles of inland public waters. The KEEP/CCES project team students observed, photographed and documented the placement of new osprey nesting platforms placed above navigation lights by the USCG during several Lake Barkley trips. (Photo) Mr. Frank Brown, CCES principal joined our team to observe the project and progress. 

A Louisville, Kentucky Audubon Society member makes a generous donation to KEEP, Inc. each Christmas helping make our KEEP projects possible. This single donor helps tremendously to enable KEEP to purchase materials for the KTVS welding students to construct steel osprey nesting platforms. As a result every USCG navigation light on Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake needing a platform has a platform! The USCG placed seventeen donated osprey-nesting platforms on navigation light structures before the ospreys returned for the 2004-nesting season.  Nesting ospreys successfully used every new platform during the 2004 season!  USCG navigation equipment now works twelve months each year at Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lakes instead of six months since the ospreys select the new nesting platforms above navigation equipment rather than building their nest directly on navigation equipment. KEEP costs for the materials for platforms donated to the USCG was only about $12 per platform since the USCG provided the short aluminum towers to support the platforms attached to navigation light poles. The twenty-two feet of steel pipe required for free standing platforms for platform elevation and support was not needed for the navigation lights which significantly lowered KEEP/CCES material costs.

2004 was a great year for Western Kentucky’s nesting ospreys! The ospreys now have a total of twenty-two additional nesting platforms as a result of our two-year project.  The environment has been made safer from potential toxic spills by ensuring improved navigation light operations while improving boating safety! The KEEP education program has expanded from one school to people and schools throughout the nation and world learning about ospreys and their needs through the Internet live cam project. Nighttime public boating safety has been greatly improved with navigation lights working twelve months per year saving the USCG much maintenance time and effort. Special thanks are credited to CCES, KTVC, USCG, CLO, KDFWR, TIOF, KEEP members, donors, volunteers, and others. Without generous widespread support this project with its many successes would not have been possible. Your help and support are needed, please join our team and help continue our progress and success as a volunteer or perhaps with a donation! KEEP has several potential projects that will be very expensive to fund so corporate or other large donors are needed. Please contact KEEP for more details.