Framework

green heron 3

A Framework for Coordinated Bird Monitoring in the Northeast (PDF - 0.5 MB) presents goals and strategies to strengthen the scientific basis for bird conservation through improvements in the effectiveness, scope, utility, and efficiency of northeastern bird monitoring.

Recommendations and priority actions (MS Word - 86 KB) have been drafted to help accomplish framework goals. This draft will be discussed and refined at a framework implementation meeting, scheduled to take place at the 2007 Northeast Coordinated Bird Monitoring Workshop.

Regionally coordinated monitoring plans (MS Word - 0.7 MB) are currently in development for a variety of bird groups. Once completed, each will contain justification for monitoring target populations, definition of conservation and monitoring objectives, a detailed survey design, and standard operating procedures for data collection, management, analysis, and reporting.

Working group progress reports and meeting notes contain information about the status of framework implementation efforts.

The Register of Northeast Bird Monitoring Programs (MS Excel - 0.8 MB) is a supplement to the framework, cataloguing over 450 bird monitoring initiatives in US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5. This useful coordination tool represents a first step toward documenting monitoring programs for the Natural Resources Monitoring Partnership's Protocol Library and Monitoring Locator.

Key elements of the framework were developed at the 2006 workshop (Proceedings, PDF - 1 MB).

Photo: Green Heron by USFWS

The Northeast Coordinated Bird Monitoring partnership is administered by American Bird Conservancy in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The project was developed by Northeast Partners In Flight, Northeast Shorebird Conservation Plan and Mid-Atlantic/New England/Maritimes Waterbird Conservation Plan, in concert with the US North American Bird Conservation Initiative's Monitoring Subcommittee. It is made possible by a Multistate Conservation Grant awarded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, with assistance from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. We gratefully acknowledge the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Programs of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which funds the Multistate Conservation Program.