Conservation Planning for Waterfowl in the Illinois River Valley-Local Management and Flyway Conservation

Wildlife scientists throughout North America are continuously faced with a simple, yet difficult to answer question: “How much habitat is enough?” Depending on the species of wildlife in question, it can be fairly difficult to determine how much habitat is required to support a population of individuals. In fact, for most wildlife species, we’re not even sure of the population sizes, much less their habitat requirements. Wa-terfowl are a notable exception to this rule, as annual population and harvest surveys provide estimates of population size while intensive, smaller-scale research identifies habitat requirements and factors that may limit population growth. The Illinois River Valley is an important stopover region for migrating waterfowl during fall and spring. Scientists from the Forbes Biological Station are currently conducting research to guide habitat conservation in the region, assist wetland managers in attracting more waterfowl and other waterbirds to their wetlands, and affect waterfowl conservation on a flyway scale. Some of these important projects include estimating spring energetic carrying capacity and diet of diving ducks while assessing new techniques to indicate quality foraging habitats, describing foraging thresholds for dabbling ducks to refine assumptions of energetic carrying capacity models, and testing new aerial survey methods to better estimate population size in complex landscapes. I will highlight waterfowl and wetlands research conducted by the Forbes Biological Station and describe the important linkages to habitat conservation at a local, regional, and flyway scale.