2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

Hannah Mulligan

South Dakota State University

Graduate Research Assistant

8:00am CST

Conference Registration Desk Open Grand Coatroom (4th Floor)

12:00pm CST

W-09: Tour of the Hellbender Propagation Facility and Herpetarium at the St. Louis Zoo (CAPACITY FULL) TBA

5:00pm CST

Student Icebreaker Meet & Greet TBA

6:00pm CST

Welcome Networking Social - Sponsored by USFWS Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

7:00am CST

Continental Breakast with Exhibitors - Sponsored by St. Louis Zoo WildCare Institute Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 1 and Awards TBABen Batten • Jim Inglis

10:05am CST

Coffee Break - Sponsored by Wildlife Management Institute TBA

10:30am CST

North Central Division AFS Business Meeting Grand A (4th Floor)Daniel Isermann

12:00pm CST

Student & Professional Networking Luncheon (pre-registration required) TBA

1:40pm CST

S-03: CWD: Strengthening Public Involvement: Iowa’s Multifaceted Approach to CWD Outreach and Management Regency E (2nd Floor)Catherine Cummings

2:00pm CST

S-03: CWD: Identifying the Motivations and Barriers of Landowners to Participating in Targeted Removal to Manage Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Missouri Regency E (2nd Floor)Jason Isabelle

2:20pm CST

S-03: CWD: Exploring Landowners’ Support for CWD Management in Illinois Regency E (2nd Floor)Eric Walberg S-05: The Power of Partnerships in Advancing Coldwater Conservation Grand B (4th Floor)Mike Siepker

2:40pm CST

Wildlife Track: Monitoring tarantulas in Missouri glades: Conservation of a charismatic arachnid. Sterling 3 (2nd Floor)Becky Hansis-O'Neill

3:00pm CST

Coffee Break TBA

3:40pm CST

S-06: Native bee response to woodland and glade restoration on Missouri’s state parks Grand C (4th Floor)Ken McCarty

4:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Evaluation of otolith and eye lens chemistry for identifying stocked Walleye Regency C (2nd Floor)Joshua Fluur

4:20pm CST

S-04: From Rod to Research and Resilience: How Anglers Enhance Fisheries Research and Management in Minnesota Waters of Lake Superior Grand A (4th Floor)Nick Peterson

4:40pm CST

S-04: Community ecology in a bottle: Leveraging eDNA metabarcoding data to predict occupancy of co-occurring salmonids and gill lice ectoparasites Grand A (4th Floor)Sasha Tetzlaff

5:00pm CST

Invasive Species Technical Committee Information and Interest Meeting Sterling 6 (2nd Floor)Hannah Mulligan • Logan Zebro

6:00pm CST

Offsite Dinner and Social ($) - Sponsored by Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation Anheuser-Busch Brewery

7:00am CST

Continental Breakast with Exhibitors - Sponsored by PayIt TBA

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 2 and Awards TBARob Hunt • Roger Still

10:05am CST

Coffee Break TBA

10:20am CST

S-07:Cooperative Inter-Agency Management of Invasive Carps in the United States Regency E (2nd Floor)Rob Simmonds

10:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Using GPS and Side Scan Sonar Data to Track Yearly Electrofishing Path Variation and Fish Community Assemblages TBADrew Holloway S-07: Developing a framework to inform early detection efforts of the next carp invasion in the Missouri River Basin Regency E (2nd Floor)Brielle Thompson

11:00am CST

S-07: Assessing Variation in Habitat Quality to Inform Preventative Management of Invasive Species Regency E (2nd Floor)Brenden Elwer S-09: Improving Dialogues in Multi-stakeholder Settings: an Experiment Mills 3 (4th Floor)Kristin Hurst

11:20am CST

S-04: Assessment of Invasive and Nuisance species in a Nebraska Reservoir Managed as a Trout Fishery Grand A (4th Floor)Alexandria Keiler-Klein S-07:The Commercial Bait Dealer Program in Kansas: Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations and Inspections Regency E (2nd Floor)Michael Parr

11:40am CST

Wildlife Track: Impact of invasive Burmese python on the abundance of two endemic endangered species in the Florida Keys Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Shauna Sayers S-08: Adaptive Management for a Reintroduced Population of Blanding’s Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) Grand B (4th Floor)Callie Klatt Golba

12:00pm CST

Lunch On Your Own TBA

1:20pm CST

S-07: What could adaptive management of invasive bigheaded carp in the Tennessee and Cumberland river subbasins look like? Regency E (2nd Floor)Michael Colvin

1:40pm CST

S-07: Evaluating Invasive Carp Management on the Illinois Waterway Through Adaptive ‘Multi-Agency Monitoring’ Regency E (2nd Floor)Michael Spear S-09: Species Preferences on Angler Motivational Factors in Kansas Mills 3 (4th Floor)Sarah Ulrichsen

2:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Exploring Assessment Techniques for Minnesota's Newest Sport Fish: the Burbot Regency D (2nd Floor)Kristen Patterson S-07: Exploring tools to evaluate invasive carp management success across different density gradients and river systems Regency E (2nd Floor)Jim Lamer S-09: Who Fishes in Indiana: Population Segments as Management Tools Mills 3 (4th Floor)Josef Hrabowski

2:20pm CST

S-09: Quantifying angler harvest decisions using four decades of creel survey data Mills 3 (4th Floor)Ben Neely

2:40pm CST

S-07: Invasive Carp Removals in Missouri River Tributaries Regency E (2nd Floor)Adam McDaniel

3:00pm CST

Coffee Break TBA

3:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Identifying potential sources of natural recruitment of muskellunge in Green Bay, Lake Michigan Regency D (2nd Floor)Ryan Eastman S-07: Invasive Carp Removal Approaches in the Missouri River Basin Regency E (2nd Floor)Jessica Howell S-09: Anonymous Location Data Integrated with Intercept Surveys: A Powerful Combined Approach to Measuring Lake Recreation Mills 3 (4th Floor)Rebecca Krogman

3:40pm CST

S-07: Monitoring Invasive Bigheaded Carp Movement Across Sub-basins in Response to Removal Efforts Regency E (2nd Floor)Joshua Abner

4:00pm CST

S-07: Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, roll in developing and maintaining invasive carp removal programs through the commercial fishing industry Regency E (2nd Floor)Joshua Tompkins

4:40pm CST

S-07: Use of Invasive Species to Address Food Security Regency E (2nd Floor)Mark Morgan

6:00pm CST

Poster Session & Tradeshow Social - C0-Sponsored by Aquatic Control, HDR Engineering & NASA TBA

7:00am CST

Continental Breakast with Exhibitors TBA

8:00am CST

S-17: The Public’s Perceived Importance and View of Midwest Fish and Wildlife Agencies Regency E (2nd Floor)Lisa Parks

8:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Taxonomic and Functional Shifts in Riverine Fish Community Assemblages Across Midwest National Parks TBALily Thompson S-07: Development and Assessment of Novel Tools and Techniques for Capture, Deterrence, and Monitoring of Invasive Carp Regency E (2nd Floor)Jesse Fischer

10:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Assessing Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) Abundance Dynamics in Tailwater Habitats Using Side-scan Sonar Techniques TBAAdam Jones

11:00am CST

S-07: Missouri River Tributary Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) Population Assessment Regency E (2nd Floor)Kellie Hanser

11:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Enhancing proactive aquatic nuisance species management by developing a standardized risk screening workflow TBALindsey LaBrie