Approach to Biological Planning & Conservation
The IWJV has developed a Science Team for each of the four major bird conservation initiatives – Waterfowl, Shorebirds, Waterbirds, and Landbirds – in order to establish population objectives and determine the extent and location of habitats needed to sustain bird populations at prescribed levels. The Science Teams, comprised of some of the best avian ecologists throughout the West, are converting continental population objectives to ecoregional scales and using population-habitat models to establish quantifiable habitat objectives. These models also permit development of spatially explicit decision support tools that inform conservation delivery, thus enabling Strategic Habitat Conservation for birds in the Intermountain West.