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2007 Partner Habitat Accomplishments Bradly A. Potter Introduction Partners within the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Region Joint Venture submitted habitat accomplishment reports for conservation actions completed in 2007. Tracking habitat accomplishments provides valuable information on the land area influenced by partners and funding expended to accomplish habitat conservation for birds. This years reporting form changed greatly from those used in the past. The new form was established to better track progress toward habitat objectives in the 2007 Implementation Plan. Within this plan, a science based process was used to calculate habitat objectives that better reflect the needs of priority birds in specific cover types. This greater level of planning detail was mirrored in the new accomplishment report form. Estimates of partner influence on bird populations will improve with continued partner tracking and land change monitoring at this level of detail.
Fourteen partners reported habitat management on 128,345 acres expending approximately $67 million. Conservation actions were separated into three categories, with the majority being enhancement (66%), followed by restoration (18%) and protection (16%). Management was conducted on 50,345 acres of wetland, 75,518 acres of upland, and 2,609 acres of unknown cover types. The upland cover type category was separated into 4 specific cover types. Six partners reported to the specific cover type level. Conservation of grasslands and deciduous forest dominated upland conservation with majority of the work focused on enhancement of grasslands. Conversely, management of shrublands and evergreen forest was very minimal.
Reports that completed specific wetland cover type detail show the majority of management actions on shallow semi-permanent marsh / hemi-marsh and wet meadows with open water. Conservation of deep water marsh and shallow mudflats was minor.
Acknowledgements We thank the partners for their involvement in bird habitat conservation and tracking conservation actions. Their contribution is vital to bird conservation in the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes region. |
Accomplishments 
The wetland cover type category was separated into 3 sub-cover types for each conservation action. Conservation actions for marsh were the greatest, followed by mudflats / shallows, and open water / beach. There was a large unknown category, containing conservation actions that were not placed into specific sub-cover types. Because of this large unknown category at the sub-cover type level, insight into management actions for specific cover types is very nominal. 
Partners were given the option to spatially identify work to the county level. Although a few partners did not have the capability to report at this level, several partners were able to complete this step. With enough partner involvement, assumptions about the spatial distribution of management compared to bird population response can be made. This analysis has yet to be completed, as it will involve multiple years of spatially tracking partner accomplishments, land cover change, and bird populations.