August 5 & 6 (Friday & Saturday)

InstructorsDr. Gary Casper is a regional ecologist and past collections manager at the Milwaukee Public Museum.  He serves as a science adviser to area land trusts and is an Associate Scientist with the UWM Field Station. His research focuses on wildlife conservation and monitoring in the western Great Lakes. Jack Coulter is an ornithologist and Board Member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, a reviewer for eBird submissions, and advises the Glacial lakes Conservancy.

The Course:  This course will give students a sound background in the theory and practice of wildlife inventory and monitoring (I&M), with an emphasis on its application in adaptive management for habitat restoration and management. The course will review standard techniques for I&M, and the essentials of study design and data collection, analysis of data, and the role of I&M in conservation assessments. Students will learn how to design I&M programs specific to various objectives, understand the differences between inventory and monitoring, and how to assess local wildlife conservation issues linked to habitat management. Common techniques for I&M will be demonstrated in the field, with a focus in 2022 on birds and monarch butterflies. The course is appropriate for researchers, planners, and property managers involved in wildlife habitat management, environmental planning, and wildlife monitoring. Come prepared to get wet and/or muddy for a field sampling component.

Course fee: $115. Available for 1 college credit or 1.4 CEU

Schedule:

Friday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Useful materials to bring: Students should come prepared for the field component, and dress appropriately for outdoors. Wading will not be required but rubber boots may be useful for soggy wet ground. Bring a field notebook. Binoculars and local field guides will be useful but are not required.

Students may review the following websites and reports before the workshop:

https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/wo/wo_gtr073.pdf

https://parcplace.org/species/inventory-and-monitoring/

https://avianknowledge.net/index.php/survey-protocols/

https://www.bcnbirds.org/monprotocol.html

https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/

https://wsobirds.org/what-we-do/atlas

http://ebird.org/content/ebird

https://monarchjointventure.org/mlmp

http://www.herpmapper.org/

http://www.inaturalist.org/

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Milwaukee-Estuary-Area-of-Concern-Wildlife-Assessment

Recommended books (not required):

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity. Standard Methods for Amphibians by W. Ronald Heyer (Editor). 1994. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. 364 pp.

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity. Standard Methods for Mammals by  D. E. Wilson, F. R. Cole, J. D. Nichols, R. Rudran, and M. S. Foster. 1996. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, D.C. 409 pp.

Reptile Diversity. Standard Methods for Inventory and Monitoring by R. W. McDiarmid, M. S. Foster, C. Guyer, J. W. Gibbons, and N. Chernoff (editors). 2012. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. 412 pp.

Occupancy Estimation and Modeling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamics of Species Occurrence by Darryl I. MacKenzie, James D. Nichols, J. Andrew Royle, Kenneth H. Pollock, Larissa L. Bailey, and James E. Hines.  2006. Elsevier (Academic Press), New York, New York. 344 pp.

Sampling Rare or Elusive Species: Concepts, Designs, and Techniques for Estimating Population Parameters by William Thompson (Editor). 2004. Island Press, Washington, D.C. 429 pp.

Register here.