For the past year, Manomet shorebird experts have been teaching federal, state and private land managers – directly responsible for more than 350,000 acres of wetlands – how to incorporate shorebird conservation into their work.

 

About 135 land managers have taken part in shorebird ecology, conservation and management workshops led by Shorebird Recovery Project Conservation Specialist Brad Winn. The workshops have been running since October 2011 and have primarily been held in the Gulf region.

 

Each workshop runs for three days and includes shorebird identification, migration ecology, threats, population census and monitoring, wetlands management techniques, shorebird food resources, flock size estimation, international conservation efforts and time spent in the field.

 

According to Winn, the workshops have been well attended by federal and state biologists and land managers, private lands managers from organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and National Audubon, federal land regulators and International Shorebird Survey (ISS) volunteers.

 

So far, workshops have been conducted at National Wildlife Refuges and Wildlife Management Areas in Florida, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana.

 

“We are encouraged by the positive response to conducting these workshops in the Gulf region,” Winn said. “The information that the participants receive will help them to incorporate shorebird and waterfowl conservation into their public lands management regimens.”

 

The workshops have the ability to reach people who manage large areas of land and influence shorebird conservation at a large scale. According to Winn, 15 of the people who attended a workshop at the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas manage a total of approximately 212,500 acres of land.

 

Winn has also seen interest from southeastern states, the upper Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and coastal California to conduct shorebird workshops.

 

– Haley Jordan