To monitor interior white-fronts, Refuge staff have partnered with MBM to band 1000 molting geese annually since 1985. In July 2007, 1029 geese were banded in 3 days on the Refuge, and 111 previously banded birds were recaptured. In conjunction with banding, U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center (USGS) researchers collected approximately 400 samples for avian influenza monitoring. Geese are normally banded on draw-down lakes along the Iditarod River.  However, due to low water levels conditions this season most birds had to be captured on rivers where they were concentrated in large flocks, which was a more challenging process. In addition to banding geese, Refuge staff also assisted MBM with the annual molting white-fronted goose aerial survey.

It is also not known whether foraging habitat on the Innoko Refuge is adequate to support the current population of 20,000–50,000 greater white-fronted geese molting there. In the second year of a partnership with USGS researchers, Refuge staff erected grazing exclosures on important banding lakes in an effort to determine quality of available forage plants and grazing intensity. Data analysis is ongoing but through these collaborative efforts we hope to identify factors potentially limiting carrying capacity on molting areas and possible relationships between habitat conditions and survival.