NEWS BRIEFS
Power of Partnerships: WBCI Annual Meeting
March 26, 2010
Hosted by We Energies
Public Service Building
Milwaukee, WI
Links to: AGENDA | REGISTRATION FORM ( ** Registration for WBCI partners is Free until March 12, 2010 ** )
Meeting Goal
Join the 160+ partners of the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative as we learn about existing and future conservation issues for birds in Wisconsin and how successful partnerships have been used to address these issues here and throughout the country.
What you’ll learn:
- How WBCI partners are addressing key issues for “our” birds across their life cycle.
- How your work can fit into the larger conservation puzzle
- Opportunities to offer feedback on active WBCI partner projects to help make these projects as successful as possible.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Stan Temple
Bird Conservation Then, Now and Tomorrow: Lessons Learned
As we contemplate bird conservation issues in the decades ahead, it is useful to reflect on lessons learned from our successes and failures to date. Having been engaged in bird conservation for the past 40 years, Dr. Stan Temple will look into his rearview mirror, as well as his crystal ball, for insights.
Power of Partnerships
Terry Rich, Coordinator for Partners in Flight, will give The Partners in Flight Tri-National Vision for Landbird Conservation as we celebrate the 20th Anniversary for Partners in Flight across the Western Hemisphere.
Tim Lizotte, Wisconsin DNR, offers the Rush Lake Restoration Project as a potential partnership model for other large scale habitat restoration efforts. During the 1960’s-1990’s, area residents witnessed a dramatic decline in Rush Lake’s aquatic vegetation, water quality, and wildlife populations. While the lake’s decline was recognized, public resistance to water level management and disagreement on potential remedies precluded any restoration attempts.
To overcome these issues, government representatives, citizens and user groups formed a lake steering committee in 1999 to develop a lake restoration plan. The group prepared a plan addressing all the significant problems facing the lake and gained strong public support. The group restructured to become the non-profit corporation, Rush Lake Watershed Restoration, Inc.
Work to restore Rush Lake began in spring 2005 with the construction of a new dam at the Waukau Creek outlet and dredging of the outlet channel to remove sediment restricting water flow. The lake was drawn down for two years, exposing 50 to 75 percent of the lake bed, and mimicking the natural drought conditions common to prairie potholes. This drawdown re-established bulrush and other beneficial wetland plants, providing a much-improved habitat for fish and wildlife. The success of this restoration effort was the result of a true partnership between citizens, local government, user groups, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
Sumner Matteson, Wisconsin DNR relects on a unique collaboration of diverse business groups, private entrepreneurs, conservation groups, volunteers, zoos, and state and federal government officials that helped make possible the recovery of the Trumpeter Swan in Wisconsin during 1987-2009. With 183 nesting pairs (original recovery goal was 20 breeding and migratory pairs) in 23 counties, the Trumpeter was officially removed from the state's endangered and threatened species list on 1 November 2009. This presentation will present a brief history of the restoration program and highlight the partnerships that made the program special and successful. A few stories along the way will amuse and inform listeners about what has become a very rewarding conservation program for those involved, especially when success was a distant dream at the beginning.
Join Steve Swenson, Aldo Leopold Foundation as he explains how birds, more than most animals, can be a catalyst for cooperative conservation. Their high mobility and strict and well-understood habitat requirements elevate birds as a practical conservation tool. The Leopold-Pine Island Important Bird Area has pulled together a diverse partnership of federal, state, non-governmental organizations, and private landowners. Birds serve this partnership as an “end in and of themselves”, indicating the success of breeding bird populations. In addition, they serve as a “means to an end”, reflecting the capacity of the land to support certain plant communities and reinforce that the whole (partnership) is greater than the sum of the parts. We have used a systematic bird survey and national and regional bird conservation plans to start and maintain an on-going conversation that has led to conservation action.
The USFWS relies on strong partnerships to manage and restore populations of endangered birds.
Joel Trick, USFWS, will describe how partner efforts are critical in Wisconsin to conserving populations of Piping Plover, Kirtland's Warbler, Whooping Cranes and other federally listed birds.