All-

Thanks to Casey for providing a more thorough explanation of what the Audubon list is and how it was created. 

The issuing of this list and the discussion it has created has demonstrated the difficulty inherent in trying to do continental assessment of bird populations. The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) represent what is basically the only dataset available to use for doing this type of work. Each has its own strength and weaknesses. Unfortunately, this is what we have. I'm sure that anyone who put some thought into it could come up with what would seem to be basic flaws in the methodology of either survey, from difficulty of detection of particular birds to changes to the habitat over time.

Even given that, the CBC and the BBS are rich datasets with continental coverages over long time frames. These are the main strengths of these surveys. Reasonable people can disagree what is the appropriate scale or way to use these data, and I think this is what we are discussing in this thread.

My colleagues from The Nature Conservancy and I attended a meeting in St. Louis in April 2006 put on by Partners in Flight and others for the express purpose of discussing using the CBC and particularly the BBS in landscape analysis for the conservation of bird habitat. This meeting was focused primarily on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in this work. Much of the discussion surrounded the very issues we are discussing here, as well as issues that arise from the use of GIS data and methods. These issues themselves are not insignificant, ranging from the issue of the currency and accuracy of landscape depiction (landcover and elevation models) to the appropriate scale for using the BBS and these digital models.

Two things encouraged me greatly about this meeting. The first is that I realized that there are some very bright, committed people working on the issues we are discussing, both analysis (GIS and data) and management (land owners tasked with providing bird habitat (USFWS, etc.).) The second thing that encouraged me was that everyone at the meeting seemed to aggree that there are significant weaknesses in the process and our knowledge but none the less were committed to doing what could be done to conserve bird habitat and bird population levels.

My take-home message from this meeting was that, despite any of the flaws, we have an obligation to do what is in our power to protect our natural heritage for the future, for a variety of reasons. As Casey and others have alluded to, it is imperative that we act. Waiting for better data or methods or any other input could have long-term impact, and that is not a viable option. The Nature Conservancy likes to describe this situation as "being comfortable making decisions with imperfect information." More analysis needs to be done, ranging from trying to understand why any particular species is declining- is it breeding habitat, migratory habitat, wintering habitat, etc.- to trying to understand how we can improve our methods and data.

This discussion has been very interesting to me. I would hope that we would continue to talk about the population levels of Ohio's birds, what their habitat needs are, and how we can work with the people and agencies responsible for managing those populations and habitats here in Ohio. I think  we can all agree that many bird populations are decreasing, appropriate habitat is declining, and that we need to act now to conserve our avian fauna for the future. 

If you would like to see the presentations from the St. Louis meeting, they can be accessed as pdf and powerpoints at the Partners in Flight website here:
www.partnersinflight.org/events/conserv_design_wkshp_0406/agenda_detailed.HTM

August Froehlich
Dublin, OH

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