Managing Habitat for Grassland Birds
A Guide for Wisconsin
Acknowledgments
We owe our sincere thanks to many people and organizations who helped with the Wisconsin grassland bird study and with this publication. First, Lisa Dlutkowski assisted significantly with many aspects of the Wisconsin grassland bird study in both field and office; not the least of her contributions were her tireless hours over 5 seasons in the field counting small brown birds and sampling vegetation.
Hearty thanks also go to Paul Rasmussen, who provided critical and valuable biometrical assistance throughout the course of the grassland bird study. Ron Gatti provided statistical help early in the project and also helped significantly with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis. Robert Rolley gave substantial help with both data analysis and GIS analysis.
Wendy McCown contributed many hours of stellar help and critical guidance with organizing, re-shaping, editing, and overseeing the production of this publication through most of its long history, especially in the crucial final stages. Michelle Jesko's hard work, cooperation, dedication, and talent have been responsible for the final layout and production of the guidebook. Amber Roth also provided substantial help with the final production of the manuscript, including the initial preparation of tables, site keys, appendixes, and other parts. Patricia Allen Duyfhuizen provided considerable and helpful editorial assistance. We appreciate the help of Julee Barnett, Kim Hartwig, Ron Gatti, and Amber Roth, who teamed together with Michelle Jesko to produce the maps in the guidebook. Betty Les assisted with some of the early planning phases for this document.
We thank Sumner Matteson, who, along with Mossman, originally developed the idea for a study of grassland birds in Wisconsin. Randy Hoffman, Eric Epstein, Rich Henderson, Mark Martin, Bill Smith, and Alan Crossley provided valuable advice and shared their knowledge throughout the course of the study. John Emlen provided great inspiration and a historical perspective on grassland birds in Wisconsin. Ursula Petersen, Ken Pruske, and Lisa Hartman assisted with field work.
Thanks go out to many DNR wildlife managers, and especially to Jim Keir, who graciously helped with our field work at Buena Vista Grasslands. Without their assistance much of our field work and other tasks would have been made much more difficult. We are specially indebted to the many private landowners who gave us permission to study grassland birds on their land.
Staff at the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service—Tom Thrall in particular—and the USDA Farm Service Agency gave us valuable assistance with the grassland bird study, as well as permission to work with private land enrolled in the CRP and ACR programs. Thanks also to staff at the Wisconsin office of The Nature Conservancy, for permission to survey birds on a number of their properties. Others whose help we appreciate include Edwards Beals, Brain Dhuey, Jennifer Graetz, Gwen Jongejan, Randy Ristow, Jean Adams, Randy Jurewicz, Jim Herkert, David Flaspohler, Susan Klugman, Julie Bleser, and Suzanne duVair.
Alan Crossley, Gerald Bartelt, and Sumner Matteson provided helpful comments on this manuscript.
The senior author would like to extend his sincere appreciation to his parents, Mary and George, for encouraging a love and appreciation of the natural world and of birds in particular. Heartfelt thanks also to his wife Joan for her support and for enduring what has been a long row to hoe.
We are grateful to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Biological Resources Division for providing BBS data and trend analyses and to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology for providing data from their Nest Record Card Program.
This study was supported in part by funds from the Federal Aid Wildlife Restoration Act under Pittman-Robertson Project W-160-P. It was also supported by a grant from the USFWS, Nongame Bird Conservation Program, Region 3.
Production Credits
Wendy McCown, Managing Editor
Patricia Duyfhuizen and Wendy McCown, Technical Editors
Michelle Jesko, Design and Production
Julee Barnett, Cartography
Cary Hunkel, Bird Illustrations
Jim McEvoy, Bird and Plant Illustrations
Cover Credits
Michael Mossman, Photography
Cary Hunkel and Jim McEvoy, Bird Illustrations
Previous Section -- Suggested Reading
Return to Contents
Next Section -- About the Authors
