AUTHORS: Mohammed A. Al-Saffar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
ABSTRACT: Breeding populations of many birds have been declining in the Midwest region for decades while climate is changing, and human population is increasing. The Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture aims to understand and address this condition while integrating objectives across bird groups, as well as human dimensions. To guide conservation actions under the current conditions, we generated decision support tools that focus on breeding and non-breeding habitats while integrating predictions for current human use and benefits from these landscapes (bird hunting and watching as well as other recreation activities and ecological goods and services). Although the JV lacked sufficient demographic and density data to develop population models for birds and predict species response to climate change, we developed spatial models to target current habitat objectives using species occurrence and land cover data, and we proposed further geospatial analysis to account for climate change. We provided a framework that is transparent, flexible, and ready to integrate biological and social objectives and add climate objectives, as needed, to increase the relevance of bird conservation to society now and in the future.
