Janine McManus, a wildlife biologist with ECCC, presents her presentation called "Making Monitoring Count: Leveraging long-term datasets and new technology to inform grassland bird conservation.
See abstract: Grassland birds are experiencing some of the steepest population declines of any bird group in North America. To address this continent-wide conservation challenge, science-based decision
support tools are needed to effectively allocate limited resources. Under the Grassland Bird Monitoring Program (GBMP), the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) in Prairie Region collects long-term monitoring data and integrates technologies, such as bioacoustics and the Motus wildlife tracking system, to help meet this need. In addition to monitoring population status and
trends, our program produces large, publicly available datasets, that can be used to inform research as well as address broader questions related to climate change, habitat loss, and land management. This seminar will outline the core monitoring activities of the GBMP at CWS and demonstrate how our program - along with key partnerships- use data to go beyond trend
estimates. This will include examples from projects that identify priority areas for conservation, integrate different data types, and assess the impact of drought on avian species-at-risk.