Coastal Bird Conservation

Full Title: Designing effective stewardship and post-restoration management plans through co-production to protect vulnerable Gulf of Mexico coastal birds

This project will identified uncertainties around the effects of coastal bird stewardship and habitat management actions.

Lead Investigator: Nicole L. Michel, National Audubon Society, Nicole.Michel@audubon.org

Natural Resource Managers: Abby Darrah (Audubon Delta), Jeff Gleason (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Erik Johnson (Audubon Delta), and Amanda Phillips (Edward Wisner Donation Trust) 

Federal Program Officer/Point of Contact: Frank Parker (frank.parker@noaa.gov)

Award Amount: $99,758

Award Period: September 2021 – August 2023

Why it matters: Coastal breeding birds have experienced dramatic population declines over the last 50 years. Coastal birds are highly susceptible to human disturbance and habitat loss — both of which have been identified as major threats to shorebirds and seabirds across the northern Gulf. Coastal bird conservation plans have recommended increasing stewardship efforts among researchers and natural resource managers to reduce human disturbance, and prioritizing management that increases the conservation value of beaches. This project will inform conservation decision making by quantifying and reducing uncertainties around the effects of specific stewardship and habitat management actions on populations of coastal birds in the Gulf.

What the team is doing: The project team conducted a review of the literature to summarize the effects of stewardship and management actions on coastal birds across the Gulf. They conducted two workshops in which researchers and natural resource managers identified knowledge gaps and prioritized hypotheses for future research. They used Structured Decision Making tools to quantify the uncertainty around each hypothesis and the feasibility of reducing that uncertainty and providing valuable guidance to resource managers, then developed a research proposal to evaluate the selected hypotheses. 

Expected outcome: The project team built the Western Gulf Stewardship Task Force, a team of experienced resource managers, decision makers, researchers, and conservation professionals. Together this team identified the most relevant and feasible hypotheses to test that would inform coastal bird management. This team received funding from the Science Program in 2023 to investigate the relative efficacy of coastal bird stewardship activities and community-wide education and outreach campaigns to reduce the impacts of human disturbance and protect coastal-breeding bird populations.