2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

Sarah Molinaro

Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois

Assistant Research Scientist, Stream Ecology

https://stream-ecology.inhs.illinois.edu/

8:00am CST

Conference Registration Desk Open Grand Coatroom (4th Floor)

12:00pm CST

Speaker Ready Room Open Mills 4 (4th Floor)

6:00pm CST

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

7:00am CST

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

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 1 and Awards Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Ben Batten • Jim Inglis

12:00pm CST

Lunch On Your Own Offsite

1:40pm CST

S-05: Fishers & Farmers Partnership: Energizing Healthy Farms & Fish Habitats Through Neighbor Connections Grand B (4th Floor)Ben Lubinski

2:00pm CST

S-05: Partnering with Private Landowners on Forest Management for Water Quality Grand B (4th Floor)Jennifer Wahls

2:20pm CST

S-02: Beyond barriers: Fish communities in a recovering tributary of Lake Erie Regency B (2nd Floor)Matthew Acre S-05: The Power of Partnerships in Advancing Coldwater Conservation Grand B (4th Floor)Mike Siepker

2:40pm CST

S-05: Conservation Counts: Building Urban and Rural Partnerships to Address Stream Biological Impairments Grand B (4th Floor)Josh Balk

3:00pm CST

Coffee Break Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

3:20pm CST

S-05: Growing Relationships for Increasing Wetland Practice Adoption to Improve Downstream Water Quality Grand B (4th Floor)Jill Kostel

3:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Macroinvertebrate Assemblages Using Live Freshwater Mussels as Habitat Regency D (2nd Floor)Madison Dunlap S-05: Scars to Shiners. Iowa's Private-Public Partnership to Save the Endangered Topeka Shiner through Oxbow Restorations. Grand B (4th Floor)Brandon Iddings

4:00pm CST

Wildlife Track: Integrated dynamic occupancy models reveal declines in gamebird distributions in Illinois and sampling bias in eBird data Sterling 3 (2nd Floor)Lauren Scopel S-05: Insights, Community Development, and Other Benefits of the Watershed Leaders Network Grand B (4th Floor)Beth Baranski

4:20pm CST

S-05: Engaging Private Landowners through Conservation Marketing Shoal Creek Woodlands for Wildlife Case-History Grand B (4th Floor)Rob Pulliam

4:40pm CST

S-05: The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Aquatic Life Monitoring Project in the Illinois River and Kaskaskia River basins, Illinois Grand B (4th Floor)Sarah Molinaro

5:00pm CST

S-05: The Nature Conservancy at Dog Tooth Bend Grand B (4th Floor)Tharran Hobson

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 Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

8:00am CST

Plenary Session 2 and Awards Grand Ballroom (DEFGH)Rob Hunt • Roger Still

10:05am CST

Coffee Break Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

10:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Apples and Oranges? Using radio and acoustic telemetry to evaluate restoration success. Regency D (2nd Floor)Seth Fopma S-11: Evaluating the Slenderwrist Burrowing Crayfish, Fallicambarus petilicarpus, for Endangered Species Act listing Grand C (4th Floor)Caitlin Bloomer

10:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Using GPS and Side Scan Sonar Data to Track Yearly Electrofishing Path Variation and Fish Community Assemblages Regency C (2nd Floor)Drew Holloway

11:00am CST

Wildlife Track: Widespread pesticide exposure and plant damage in natural areas in Illinois Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )T.J. Benson

11:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Microplastic Abundance in Fish Species with Differing Feeding Habits in a Large Midwestern River Regency C (2nd Floor)Michael Louison S-11: From streams, swamps, sloughs and roadside ditches: The places you will go while sampling the rare crayfishes of Texas, USA. Grand C (4th Floor)Dusty Swedberg

11:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Thermal Tolerances and Heat Shock Protein Regulation of Bigmouth Shiners Regency C (2nd Floor)Ella Humphrey S-09: Summarizing grassland management social science literature and conservation practitioner social science needs across the Central Grasslands Mills 3 (4th Floor)Ashley Gramza

12:00pm CST

Lunch On Your Own Offsite

1:20pm CST

Fisheries Track: Impacts of Habitat Enhancement on Fish Assemblage Integrity in Several Midwestern Streams Regency C (2nd Floor)Ryan Skowronski Wildlife Track: Multi-Method Occupancy of Semi-Aquatic Mammals in Southern Illinois Regency F (2nd Floor)Derek Whipkey Wildlife Track: Quantifying the biodiversity benefit of forest cover in agricultural landscapes using environmental DNA metabarcoding Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Olivia Reves S-10: Testing the Waters: A Foray Into Floating Wetlands Regency B (2nd Floor)Kara Tvedt

1:40pm CST

S-08: Effects of Prescribed Fire and Mowing on Smooth Greensnake Detection and Nesting Activity Grand B (4th Floor)Allison Sacerdote-Velat

2:00pm CST

S-09: Who Fishes in Indiana: Population Segments as Management Tools Mills 3 (4th Floor)Josef Hrabowski

2:20pm CST

S-12: Reconstructing wetland garden productivity and resilience at Cahokia, Illinois (900-1350 AD) Sterling 3 (2nd Floor)Natalie Mueller

2:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Trends in Population Status and Range-Wide Geographic Patterns of Genetic Variation for the Federally Petitioned Bluestripe Darter Regency C (2nd Floor)Brittany Harried Wildlife Track: River-Floodplain Connectivity: Effects on Ecological Communities in Restored Wetlands along the Lower Missouri River Regency F (2nd Floor)Josh Williams

3:00pm CST

Coffee Break Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

3:20pm CST

S-08: Resurveying the Amphibians and Reptiles of Chicagoland Forest Preserves Grand B (4th Floor)Madelynn Sinclair S-12: Growing native edible plants for food and wildlife in farms and gardens. Sterling 3 (2nd Floor)Nadia Navarrete-Tindall

3:40pm CST

S-08: Ecology of an Urban Population of Common Snapping Turtles in Indiana Grand B (4th Floor)Jean-Baptiste Johnson

4:00pm CST

Fisheries Track: Applications of Environmental DNA Metabarcoding to Fish Biodiversity Assessments of Missouri Ozark Stream and Mississippi River Lowland Habitats Regency D (2nd Floor)David Duvernell

4:20pm CST

S-09: Producer's views on conservation programs in the Rainwater Basin region of Nebraska Mills 3 (4th Floor)Natalia Hagen

4:40pm CST

Fisheries Track: Native Rough Fish Management Progress in Minnesota Regency C (2nd Floor)Shannon Fisher

6:00pm CST

Poster Session & Tradeshow Social - Co-Sponsored by Aquatic Control, HDR Engineering & NASA Grand Ballroom (4th Floor) P-34: Testing for Tick-borne Disease Pathogens in the Lone Star Tick in St. Louis Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Whitney Anthonysamy P-38: Effects of Environmental Variables on Crayfish Occupancy in Shallow Eutrophic Lakes and Wetlands Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Dalton Clayton P-39: Freshwater Mussel Diversity and Restoration in Cub Creek, Nebraska Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Alexis Oetterer P-40: Integrating eDNA Techniques in Freshwater Biomonitoring of Fish and Macroinvertebrates Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Madison Suttman P-42: Assessment of Fish Guilds in the Lower Wabash River Using Standardized Long-Term Monitoring Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Olivia Wertman P-43: Understanding our past and forecasting our future: discovering associations among hydrogeomorphology, water chemistry, and the distribution and abundance of biota in the Upper Mississippi River System Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Julia Hampton P-44: Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Aquatic Life Monitoring in the Illinois River and Kaskaskia River Basins Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Billy Nixon P-45: A Comparison of Gear Efficacy for Sampling Fishes Occupying Near-Shore, Off-Channel Riverine Habitats Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Devon Oliver P-46: Planning for Resiliency: Identifying Aquatic Conservation Priorities Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Josh Bruegge P-47: Fishing for recovery: Assessing stream fish and macroinvertebrate community response post-fertilizer spill into an Illinois creek. Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Shaley Klumker P-50: Spatial Extent of Fish Community Change in an Indiana Stream Following Reconnection to the Mississippi River Basin Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Alexander Searfoss P-54: Assessing Fish Passage Barriers in Wyoming and Montana Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Stephanie Webster P-77: Temporal Occupancy of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) within Tributaries of the Ohio River Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Patrick Padilla P-78: Community Sampling Gears Affect Silver Carp Density Estimates Derived from Hydroacoustic Surveys Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Garrett Johnson P-79: Spatial and Temporal Trends of Silver Carp Body Condition in the Ohio River Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Adam Musolf P-89: Effects of Embryonic Exposure to Predation Cues on Embryo and Larval Behavior in Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas) Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Abby Yake P-90: Density and community composition of aquatic invertebrates in interdunal wetland ponds at Ludington State Park, MI, USA Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Rowan Faust P-94: Urban Wildlife Management success: Eleven years of Canada goose (Branta Canadensis) population management on Missouri Western State University campus. Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Cary Chevalier P-96: Development and Cloud Implementation of the New Annual National Land Cover Database for the United States Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Jesslyn Brown P-99: The Next Frontier: Development of a Lake Fish Biogeographical Model in the Canadian Shield, Minnesota Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)Jessica Massure

7:00am CST

Continental Breakast with Exhibitors Grand Foyer (4th Floor)

8:00am CST

S-11: Molecular Surveillance of a Potential Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) Invasion in the Midwest United States Grand C (4th Floor)Eric Larson

8:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Looking Towards the Future: Individual Identification Tag Exploration on Bigmouth Shiners for use on Small-bodied At-risk Fish in Nebraska Regency B (2nd Floor)Joe Spooner S-19: The Five Land Languages: How Differing Perceptions of Place Constrain Conservation Delivery, and What We Can Do About It Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Karl Malcolm

8:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Taxonomic and Functional Shifts in Riverine Fish Community Assemblages Across Midwest National Parks Regency B (2nd Floor)Lily Thompson

9:00am CST

S-19: Missouri Habitat Strike Teams: Partnering for Collaborative Landscape Conservation Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Megan Buchanan

9:20am CST

Fisheries Track: Alternative Data Sources Predict (Dis)similar Connectivity Networks Among Minnesota Lakes Regency B (2nd Floor)Aaron Muehler

9:40am CST

Fisheries Track: Tracking the Spread of Invasive Mollusks in the Illinois River Watershed Regency B (2nd Floor)Nicholas Iacaruso S-16: Navigating Change: Creating Resilient Urban Landscapes for Migratory Birds Regency D (2nd Floor)Abigail Derby Lewis

10:20am CST

S-15: USACE Mobile - Improving Fish Passage, Mussel Habitat, and Fish Spawning Habitat Through Modification of Federal Reservoir Operations Grand A (4th Floor)Terry Rickey

10:40am CST

S-11: Stress levels of P. Clarkii and F. Rusticus differ along the Chicago River Grand C (4th Floor)John Bieber S-15: Native Freshwater Mussels in the Allegheny River: Science to Support the Sustainable Rivers Program Grand A (4th Floor)Teresa Newton

11:00am CST

S-19: Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape – Making Connectivity Progress in a Fragmented Landscape Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Michael Spalding

11:20am CST

S-19: Development and Implementation of Missouri's Landscape Health Index Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Jon Podoliak

11:40am CST

S-19: Planning for Pollinators: How Voluntary Conservation Agreements Can Encourage Landscape-Scale Conservation Sterling 9 (2nd Floor )Catherine O’Reilly