Denny Fenn, USGS Associate Director for Biology, has announced that the ICEBIRG Workshop - "Science for Avian Conservation: Understanding, Modeling, and Applying Ecological Relationships" will be held on October 31 - November 2, 2000 at the National Wildlife Visitor Center associated with the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland. The ICEBIRG workshop program is a continuing series of science workshops aimed at promoting communication among USGS scientists working on specific biological problems. Its goal is to help clarify new and emerging biological issues, assess USGS capabilities, and develop future science directions. (See the website at: http://bionet.er.usgs.gov/science  for more information on the ICEBIRG worshp series). Dr Fenn notes that, "The driving force behind the development of this workshop is the need to identify the role of USGS in meeting the avian conservation needs of the future, as represented by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI), and its component efforts - North American Waterfowl Management Plan, Partners in Flight, U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, and North American Colonial Waterbird Conservation Plan. NABCI is already influencing future budget planning in USGS and other natural resource agencies, as well as resource management planning at various levels. The goal of NABCI, to '[deliver] the full spectrum of bird conservation through regionally-based, biologically-driven, landscape-oriented partnerships', defines the challenges facing USGS in providing the science needed to meet this goal. The targeted audience for this workshop is USGS scientists within all divisions, as well as representatives from our resource management partner agencies, who are interested in defining the role of USGS in providing biological and non-biological information to inform avian conservation. This workshop will define the context within which avian conservation is being implemented and address some of the priority issues facing scientists and managers involved in avian conservation. It will also identify some of the future priority research needs and directions for USGS. We hope to identify the value of current USGS science activities, envision new means of integrating information across disciplines and scales, and begin to address the issues raised by the bird conservation community. This workshop is meant to challenge all USGS scientists to see their part in contributing to avian conservation efforts of the future."

On 21-22 September 2000, Patuxent staff cohosted a workshop on Bald Eagle monitoring at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The meeting was designed to bring together selected state eagle survey biologists, statisticians, and FWS endangered species staff to discuss ways of using ongoing monitoring programs to develop a nationwide monitoring program for the species. The workshop was cohosted by Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, FWS Division of Migratory Bird Management, and the FWS endangered species group.

The workshop was nationwide in scope, and was attended by about 30 people. John Sauer (PWRC), Mark Otto (FWS), and Dawn Haines (Census Bureau) made presentations about technical issues associated with sampling eagles, Endangered Species staff discussed the need for monitoring, and biologists from selected states presented methods and results of ongoing surveys. Many technical issues still exist in developing a nationwide network of monitoring programs, but the workshop met its primary goals of identifying primary methods and constraints of ongoing surveys and discussing possible approaches developing a network of monitoring programs that could fulfill the legislative mandate for eagle monitoring.

Contact: John R. Sauer
John_R_Sauer@usgs.gov 

Patuxent Wildlife Festival to be Held October 14, 2000

The Patuxent Wildlife Festival, a joint effort of the Patuxent Research Refuge and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center will be held on Saturday, 14 October 2000 from 10:00-3:00 at the Visitor Center. This is a major annual event where we get to show off our Research Center to the public. Scientists and staff are encouraged to participate and/or provide scientific posters and displays for the event. Please contact Leslie Lammons (x 5743) or B.H. Powell (x 5782) if you can help in any way. If you can only provide a poster, we will be glad to come by your office to pick it up. See the event advertisement on the Patuxent homepage, http:\\www.pwrc.usgs.gov  

Patuxent Scientist Spendelow to Present Paper at Euring 2000

Dr Jeff Spendelow will attend the EURING 2000 conference from 2-7 October 2000 at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, CA. He will present the paper, "Development and application of new multisite recruitment models for species with delayed maturity and staggered entry into the breeding population: a case study of Roseate Terns" authored by J.A. Spendelow, J.-D. Lebreton, J.E. Hines, R. Pradel, J.D. Nichols, I.C.T. Nisbet, G. Cormons, H. Hays, and J.J. Hatch.

See Previous HiLites:
August 31, 2000
September 21, 2000