Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: North Carolina
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

This project focuses on wetland-dependent migratory birds such as; waterfowl, shorebirds, and wading birds (collectively defined here as waterbirds). Most wetland managers don?t have the luxury of managing for a single species or one guild of species. Managers must take into consideration many factors when targeting management for different bird guilds or conducting management activities that benefit one guild over another. Factors that must be considered are the annual wetland hydrological cycle, species priorities, budget and staff resources, and physical constraints of the wetlands being managed. All these factors lead managers to adjust individual wetland objectives on an annual basis to take into consideration changing wetland conditions that present management opportunities or problems that must be addressed. To meet these needs, habitat and population monitoring protocols and databases will be developed that allow data to be shared or linked across spatial scales, promote the use of adaptive management, and help to identify the importance and priority of management decisions.