Waterbird Management

Little Blue Heron, Bill Majoros; Wood Duck, USFWS; Lesser Yellowlegs, Ducks Unlimited

Integrated management and monitoring of waterbirds that use the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways during winter and migration.

Sustaining healthy populations of waterbirds that migrate long distances (waterfowl, shorebirds, and wading birds) is a major challenge for land managers. How does a manager know which species to manage for at a specific site? How important is a single site in the big picture? How can many managers coordinate their actions across the landscape so that the birds have the right amount and quality of habitat, at the right time, in the right places? These questions are difficult to answer without understanding how all the pieces fit together.

Managers and scientists are working together in a new project to understand and optimally manage conservation lands along the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways to support continental populations of waterbirds. They are using adaptive management and modeling in an innovative way that incorporates their management expertise as well as new conservation planning and modeling tools.

Project Fact Sheet

Waterbird Project Milestones and Timeline, December 2009

Waterbird Project Update, May 2010

Waterbird Project Update, October 2010

Template for Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) implementation plan to meet Waterbird Management Needs within Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways.