The development of the National Marsh Bird Monitoring Program began in 1999 and was one of the outcomes from a 1998 marsh bird workshop at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (Ribic et al. 1999). The program was designed to develop and beta-test standardized protocols to be used in a national or continental monitoring effort. Information about the status and population trends of many species of secretive marsh birds is limited. This general lack of knowledge is the product of two factors:
The development of a well-structured, standardized monitoring program will hopefully alleviate both of these problems and allow continental, regional, and local trends in marsh bird abundance to be determined. Gaining better knowledge of trends in marsh bird abundance is important for a variety of reasons:
Information gained from a standardized monitoring effort will help managers preserve biodiversity, ecosystem quality, and recreational value across the continent. |
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