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Thanks to Chris Eberly for distributing the latest Partners in Flight Newsletter:

PARTNERS IN FLIGHT NEWSLETTER

www.PartnersInFlight.org

October 2008

Partners in Flight 20th Anniversary

In 2010, PIF will celebrate 20 years of bird conservation activity. We are discussing appropriate events and products to highlight this milestone. See the next item on IMBD 2010. Send ideas to Terry Rich (terry_rich@fws.gov) and or Sue Bonfield (sbonfield@aol.com).

International Migratory Bird Day

2009 – The IMBD 2009 Theme, Celebrating Birds in Culture, offers new and creative education opportunities. Over the next several months, we will be providing information about activities and ideas that you may incorporate into your programs, even if you aren’t hosting a formal event. We send these as part of our monthly newsletter, but information is always up on the web as well (www.birdday.org). Let me know if you would like to be added to the mailing list or sign-up at http://www.birdday.org/signup.php.

2010 – Environment for the Americas (home of International Migratory Bird Day) participated in recent national PIF committee meetings. We are excited to announce that the 2010 IMBD theme will focus on the power of partnerships in conserving birds. One focus of the year will be celebrating 20 years of Partners in Flight. We look forward to your thoughts and ideas about this theme.—Sue Bonfield (sbonfield@aol.com)

2008 PIF Awards – Nominations now being Accepted

Partners in Flight is now accepting nominations for the 2008 National Awards The PIF awards program recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of landbird conservation. Nominees who have furthered the goal of protecting migratory and resident landbirds and their habitats will be evaluated for their effective public awareness activities, innovative leadership, insightful ecological investigations, or sound land stewardship. Eligible nominations will be accepted for individuals or groups from the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Awards information and downloadable nomination forms can be found at http://www.partnersinflight.org/awards/ . The deadline for submission is 15 December 2008. There are many good candidates for awards that have never been nominated. Please consider submitting a nomination this year for a worthy candidate!—Richard A. Fischer (Richard.A.Fischer@erdc.usace.army.mil)

PIF Trinational Vision

The PIF Science Committee (SC) met on 5-6 September 2008 at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to continue work on the “Trinational Vision” document which will address conservation of 893 species of landbirds that regularly breed in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. This was the third working meeting of the SC on this task. A number of new approaches will be employed to deal with the large variety of species, ecologies, and conservation messages. The SC will also be spending more time identifying target audiences and more specific messages for them, building on the approaches being crafted by the Bird Education Network and the Bird Education Alliance for Conservation. This document will not simply be an update of our 2004 Continental Plan, but rather will develop a number of new topics in bird conservation. We plan to have a final draft for wide review by the 2009 AFWA annual conference.

4th International PIF Conference – Needs Assessment

The McAllen conference Needs Assessment was finalized in early October and distributed to various listservs. The Needs Assessment consists of an 89-page document that spells out the 465 needs identified in the McAllen conference sessions. These are organized into 5 categories – Capacity Building, Inventory/Monitoring, Education/Communication/ Outreach, Public Policy and Research. This document will be placed on the PIF web site. A companion spreadsheet is also available that allows users to sort the needs, e.g., by category. This is available from Terry (terry_rich@fws.gov).

The PIF Implementation Committee is currently working to provide a synthesis of the needs by each of the five categories. These distillations should make the large numbers of needs more accessible to groups that are focused on one component. Examples of the latter are the NABCI Monitoring Subcommittee and the Bird Education Alliance for Conservation. We encourage all partners to peruse this full assessment and subsequent products to find topics of mutual interest that might be pursued together.

4th International PIF Conference – Proceedings

A total of 94 papers (1764 pages) have been submitted for publication in the McAllen conference proceedings. Papers are now undergoing peer review. The co-editors – Coro Arizmendi, Craig Thompson, Dean Demarest and Terry Rich – plan to have all papers finalized in early January 2009. Only a limited number of hard copies of the proceedings will be printed (e.g., 1000). The document will be made available on the PIF web site, like the Asilomar proceedings, as the major means of distribution.
Letter Encouraging Use of PIF Species Assessment Database

A letter has been sent to several federal agencies from the PIF Council urging those agencies to use the PIF Species Assessment Database to help set species priorities during land use and project planning. The issue was raised after it was learned that some federal field offices were using out-dated or insufficient information for setting species priorities. The Council argues that the Species Assessment Database is the best scientific information available for assessing the future vulnerability of landbirds in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. If you would like to see a copy of this letter, please contact Terry.

State of the Birds

A working group continues to work on the new State of the Birds report. The goals of the 2009 report are to demonstrate and provide data-driven support for the concepts that ,1) the health of bird populations is linked to the quality of life for citizens of the United States, and 2) that bird populations can provide good indicators of landscape-level changes in this nation’s natural resources. The report will succinctly describe the health of bird populations in the United States (excluding U.S. territories). It will also address the major challenges that are limiting bird populations from attaining desired levels, the conservation and management needs to address the major threats to bird populations, and a progress report on the status of priority species. The report will address the overall health of all bird populations, including waterfowl, waterbirds, landbirds, and shorebirds. The 2009 report will be ready for the North American in March 2009.

PIF National Committee Meetings

The PIF Science Committee and Implementation Committee met at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology prior to the annual conference of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) in September. During the AFWA conference, the AFWA PIF/Shorebird/Waterbird Working Group, PIF Federal Agency Committee and PIF Council met as they typically do during this conference. Notes from all of these meetings are available from the chairs or from Terry. PIF also participated in the other bird committee meetings, notably the Bird Conservation Committee, Resident Game Bird Working Group and Migratory Shore & Upland Game Bird Working Group. Finally, Terry Rich is also participating on AFWA’s Reptile & Amphibian Subcommittee to help find ways to integrate conservation of these species into bird conservation activities.

Agreement with the Mesoamerican Society for Conservation and Biology

PIF will sign an agreement with the MSCB whereby we will delineate areas of common interest to be pursued together. One component will be to ensure a robust participation of PIF in the MSCB annual conferences. Training on bird banding will take place prior to this year’s meeting in El Salvador. Other potential training, symposia and keynote addresses have been discussed in some detail for the 2009 conference in Belize and for subsequent years. The PIF Mesoamerican Working Group will play an ever stronger role in this relationship. The agreement will be posted on the PIF web site after it is signed.—Carol Beidleman (Carol_Beidleman@partner.nps.gov) and José M. Zolotoff-Pallais (zolotoff@ibw.com.ni)

Mesoamerican PIF Coordinators

We’ve added contact for the Mesoamerica PIF Coordinators. If you go to the front page of the PIF website, you can either click on or hold your mouse over “PIF Contacts” and you can now select either “PIF U.S. Contacts” or “PIF Mesoamerica Contacts”. As some of you will know, there have already been some recent changes in these contacts, and as soon as I have the new info, we’ll update the MesoPIF page.—Janet Ruth (janet_ruth@usgs.gov)

La Tangara

Don’t forget to periodically check the web site for our bilingual newsletter, La Tangara. No 68 is available at: http://www.latangara.org/. Choose the language and then “Archives.” On the latest edition:
Guatemala’s Bird Watching Round Table
Bird Bander Network of Costa Rica
Biologist from El Salvador receives NABC Bander Certification
First Record of Roosting Site for a Colony of the Rufous-Fronted Parakeet
Information Needed on Estrildids in the Neotropics
Paraguay’s First Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Site
Adopt a Bird for Conservation in Colombia
Save Brazil Thanks the Landowners who are Helping Save Boa Nova
2008 Pablo Canevari Award
And much more. —Jose M. Zolotoff-Pallais (zolotoff@ibw.com.ni)

Population Estimates for Resident Game Birds

During the recent meeting of the AFWA Resident Game Bird Working Group, we had a good discussion about the population estimates for upland game birds that PIF provided and how those relate to other estimates provided by states and by NGOs such as the National Wild Turkey Federation (http://www.nwtf.org/) and Quail Unlimited (http://www.qu.org/). We realized early on that some of our estimates differed greatly from estimates that local biologists had. We are now finally in a position to compare these estimates for certain species and certain geographic areas. These comparisons will help to not only come closer to real-world population estimates, but also to help PIF improve its estimation process in general. One factor that seems clear is that we are overestimating the detectability of many species of game birds.
Population Estimates and the PIF “Trinational Vision”

Species population estimates were a novel and important contribution in the North American Landbird Conservation Plan. Since those estimates were released, PIF has made several overtures to partners, notably at annual AFWA conferences, soliciting reviews of our estimates and seeking suggestions for improvement of our process. Feedback has been patchy – we have received some very good independent estimates (see previous item, for example) and some comments on the general applicability of our process. We intend to update all the estimates for which we have better scientific information prior to completion of the new “Trinational Vision.” The primary purpose for this will be to make our scoring of Population Size more accurate. A more thorough update of population estimates across all landbird species is still to come.

Alliance for the Grasslands

The Alliances initiative for the conservation of the South American Southern Cone grasslands was launched by the family of organizations dedicated to the conservation and study of wild birds in the four South American countries which share the great biome of the pampas of the Southern Cone of the continent. These organizations are Aves Argentinas, Aves Uruguay, SAVE Brazil, and Guyra Paraguay. They are all associates of BirdLife International.

Each national organization makes a particular effort within its country, and coordinates with the other countries to create a sphere of attention around the subjects of the conservation of the biodiversity in these grasslands. Many share species are involved, notably Upland Sandpiper, Swainson’s Hawk, Buff Breasted Sandpiper and Bobolink. This proposes a challenge on a continental level, so that this Southern Cone initiative interacts with organizations like the National Audubon Society, the US Forest Service, the Northern Prairies Action Plan and Pronatura. See http://www.pastizalesdelconosur.org/eng/home.html for more details.—Anibal Parera (anibal.parera@birdlife.org)

PIF and IUCN Species Assessment

Species assessment was the subject of a workshop in the recent Birdlife World Conference in Buenos Aires (http://www.birdlife.org/worldconference/). Terry Rich presented the PIF assessment process to attendees, and subsequent discussions focused on how we might make the PIF process and IUCN process more harmonious. This is a work in progress that the PIF Science Committee will be dealing with in the future. We do not anticipate making any further changes in the PIF process due to the fact that the US-CA-MX Trinational Vision document is now being written based on the existing assessment.

Bird Education Alliance for Conservation

BEAC continues to support PIF by pursuing a number of projects of fundamental value to PIF and bird conservation. For example, a toolkit consisting of bird conservation issues, actions and target audiences continues to be developed at three geographic scales – continental, regional and local. This will now be cross walked with the education, communication and outreach needs identified in McAllen. See the new BEAC website for the BEAC Strategic Plan, How to get Involved and more http://www.birdedalliance.org/.

Pocket Bird Guides

Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and PRBO Conservation Science have had tremendous success in outreach and education to those who are not bird experts by producing “pocket bird guides.” For example, RMBO has distributed over 50,000 “Pocket Guide to Prairie Birds,” and this guide is now being translated in Spanish for distribution in Mexico. These guides literally fit into your shirt pocket and have very basic information on the birds and their conservation needs in a particular habitat or region. We are now working with these NGOs and NRCS to produce a “Pocket Guide to Birds of the Sagebrush Sea.” The ultimate goal is to produce a pocket guide for each habitat type in North America. We have also proposed this tool for consideration by the Grasslands Alliance in South America (see above).

Improving the Understanding of Winter Ranges for High-priority Migrants

PIF and NatureServe have assembled a proposal to help us better define the winter ranges of five high-priority species: Olive-sided Flycatcher, Bay-breasted Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Kentucky Warbler and Canada Warbler. Quite simply, we cannot take effective conservation action in non-breeding habitat if we don’t know where the birds are. Ongoing work on the winter ranges of Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers is thought to be sufficient. PIF continues to seek funding for this proposal. Contact Terry if you would like to see a copy.

Climate Change Assessment – Species Vulnerability Traits

PIF continues to explore conducting a climate change vulnerability assessment of the 893 species of landbirds in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. This assessment would use the Species Vulnerability Traits report compiled nearly a year ago by the Imperial College of London, IUCN Species Programme, IUCN Species Survival Commission and the Zoological Society of London. Note that this assessment is independent of habitat models and projections. It focuses on the innate capacity of species to adapt. The report is available from Terry Rich.

Climate Change: The Science of Impacts

USGS has a new site, “Climate Change: The Science of Impacts.” This site draws from the research and publications databases to consolidate tasks and products that address climate change. It also features a home page and a page of related resources. See http://www.fort.usgs.gov/ClimateChange/.—Dave Hamilton (dave_hamilton@usgs.gov)

Costa Rican Bird Route Challenge

The Costa Rican Bird Route Challenge is the official opening event of the Costa Rican Bird Route, the first birding trail in Costa Rica. The 13-site birding trail includes 6 new private reserves along with world famous birding areas such as La Selva Biological Station, Selva Verde Lodge, and Laguna Lagarto Lodge.

The Challenge, which will be held 21-27 February 2009, is a contest to see which team of bird watchers can observe the most species in the Bird Route over a period of three days. Each team will consist of six people, two of which will be local guides. The remaining four slots are for you and your teammates. There will be a total of six teams racing through the Costa Rican Bird Route in search of the most number of birds possible. Each team will be equipped with either two 4WD vehicles or a single 4WD van.

The Challenge itself is being run to raise funds for improving infrastructure at new biological reserves, and to raise awareness about the Costa Rican Bird Route. Each team is required to raise a minimum of $500 to help support the development of bird tourism at the new private reserves. The winning team will receive a plaque, as well international recognition as the winners of the first Costa Rican Bird Route Challenge. See www.CostaRicanBirdRoute.com
for more details.—Raquel Gomez (raquel@costaricanbirdroute.com)

Lights Out Detroit – Project Safe Passage

The Detroit Audubon Society and Michigan Audubon are working with Detroit building managers, occupants, security and maintenance personnel to help reduce bird collisions by turning off the lights or draw blinds/curtains above 5th floors from 23:00 to 06:00 during the fall migratory season – 15 August through
31 October.

In addition to saving birds, Project Safe Passage can help buildings:
Save money: Some building managers in Toronto’s program report
saving $200,000 annually on their lighting expenses. A DTE study
estimates over $60,000 a year will be saved at their headquarters. And,
much more can be saved over a full year.
Save the environment: By cutting electric use, buildings will
also cut CO2 and other pollution. The same DTE study estimates their
headquarters building will reduce emissions of over two million pounds
of CO2 a year by participating in Safe Passage. Participation can also
be a tool in a green strategy to help reduce the carbon footprint. See http://www.detroitaudubon.org/safe%20passage.html for details.—Tom Funke
tfunke@michiganaudubon.org and Fred Charbonneau(jfcharbo@juno.com)

State of the World’s Birds

Data show that the state of the world’s biodiversity, as reflected by its 9,856 living bird species, continues to get worse. Moreover, while governments have made verbal commitments to conserving biodiversity, the resources available for this fall far short of what is needed. This website outlines why birds and biodiversity are important, and examines what we know about the changing state of the world’s birds, why birds are declining and what can be done to improve their status. See http://www.biodiversityinfo.org/sowb/default.php?r=sowbhome.

TraitNet

TraitNet is dedicated to the advancement and integration of trait-based evolutionary and ecological research. Traits are variously defined, but essentially concern species’ properties that affect individual fitness and govern species’ impacts and responses to their environment. Trait-based research spans an enormous array of ecological and evolutionary disciplines. While each discipline has sought to define traits, apply trait data to test theory, establish protocols for the quantification of traits, and build multi-user databases, little coordination or interaction has occurred across disciplines. TraitNet addresses this extraordinary opportunity to facilitate integration and synthesis across this array of disciplines. See http://www.columbia.edu/cu/traitnet/index.html for more details. We are trying to find out how TraitNet is coordinating with IUCN and its assessment of Species Vulnerability Traits (see above).

Riparian Habitat Conservation and Flood Management

The Board of the Riparian Habitat Joint Venture is very pleased to announce that the extended abstracts for our December 2007 conference (Riparian Habitat Conservation and Flood Management) is now complete and available for download at http://www.prbo.org/calpif/rhjvconference/proceedings/. We will have a limited number of CDs and paper copies in the near future. Please contact us at info@prbo.org with “RHJV proceedings” in the subject line if you would like CDs or paper copies.

Riparian Habitat Joint Venture Update

The RHJV was established in 1994 by California Partners In Flight to address the dramatic, statewide decline of riparian habitat and the many bird species that rely upon it. With only 10% of the state’s once abundant riparian habitat remaining today, the challenge to protect and restore this critical habitat is as great as or greater than it was 14 years ago. To date, 19 state and federal agencies and private organizations have signed onto the Working Agreement that defines the Riparian Habitat Joint Venture, and have as part of their individual and collective missions the habitat management, protection, or regulation of riparian habitat.

Riparian habitat is still imperiled. Other organizations are delivering habitat, but without adequate technical expertise. The State Water Resources Control Board will be developing riparian policy in 2011 and requires technical and consensus building assistance to prepare for that effort. Agencies and private funders are waiting for a statewide map of riparian areas to set goals and priorities, direct restoration and protection funds, and to monitor change. Others are looking for consensus building among the various agencies that regulate activities in riparian habitats. All of these constituents see a role for RHJV to help them have a greater impact on riparian protection.

To meet this need, RHJV has realigned the organization to be the go-to source for expertise and support for riparian habitat conservation (restoration, enhancement, and acquisition) statewide. It has the credibility and public trust to work across agencies and organizations to resolve differences, advocate for policy that protects the resource, educate decision makers in the public and private sectors, and advocate for funding for agencies and projects that will help turn around the dire situation of riparian habitat in California.—Geoffrey R. Geupel (ggeupel@prbo.org)

Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Fire and Nonnative Invasive Plants

This state-of-knowledge review of information on relationships between wildland fire and nonnative invasive plants can assist fire managers and other land managers concerned with prevention, detection, and eradication or control of nonnative invasive plants. The 16 chapters in this volume synthesize ecological and botanical principles regarding relationships between wildland fire and nonnative invasive plants, identify the nonnative invasive species currently of greatest concern in major bioregions of the United States, and describe emerging fire-invasive issues in each bioregion and throughout the nation. This volume can help increase understanding of plant invasions and fire and can be used in fire management and ecosystem-based management planning.

Zouhar, Kristin; Smith, Jane Kapler; Sutherland, Steve; Brooks, Matthew L. 2008. Wildland fire in ecosystems: fire and nonnative invasive plants. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-42-vol. 6. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 355 p.

Available from http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr042_6.html.

MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES

Cerulean Warbler Summit /Golden-winged Warbler Summit

The 3rd Cerulean Warbler Summit and 2nd Golden-winged Warbler Summit will be held 21-25 October 2008 in Bogotá and San Vicente de Chucurí, Colombia. This summit will be devoted to conservation planning for migratory and resident birds of the Northern Andes. During this workshop we will define a conservation strategy for these species of high management concern on the non-breeding grounds through management, research, education and partnerships. The Objectives are to:
Increase awareness of conservation status of the Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers throughout their ranges.
Discuss and approve a five year conservation plan for Cerulean Warbler for the non- breeding grounds that includes research, management and conservation strategies, educational outreach, regional coordination and monitoring.
Develop a conservation plan for Golden-winged Warblers including the same components.
Build partnerships between the various industries, farmers, landowners, and conservationists that benefit Ceruleans, Golden-wings and other birds on the breeding and non breeding areas in the context of economically productive and socially sustainable landscapes.
Explore management opportunities that benefit Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers and will help reverse their population declines in the context of regional all-bird conservation.
Develop a coordination plan for information sharing and conservation action follow-through.
Identify outreach and education programs to communicate awareness of non-breeding ground conservation in Central and South America and promote linkages between countries in the western hemisphere.
See http://www.ecotours.com.co/summit_eng.html for more details.

PIF Western Working Group

The fall 2008 meeting of the Western Working Group of Partners in Flight will be held at the Sierra Suites hotel in Sierra Vista, Arizona on 22-23 October 2008. The meeting will continue to focus on implementation of the WWG 5-Yr Action Plan and build on progress made in Olympia. Breakout sessions will include: 1) coordinated westwide monitoring for Flammulated Owls, 2) implementation of the national nightjar survey in the West, 3) Southwest ReGAP bird-habitat models, 4) Farm Bill and Private Lands issues, and 5) coordinated landbird monitoring The agenda and logistical information are available from Rex Sallabanks (rsallaba@idfg.idaho.gov)

NCPIF Fall Meeting

The fall North Carolina Partners in Flight meeting will be held on 5 November 2008 at Riverbend Park in Conover, NC. As with all fall meetings, this one will have a theme related to regional ongoing projects. This year will focus on the mountains and western piedmont.—Mark Johns (johnsme@mindspring.com).

Wind Energy and Wildlife Workshop

The Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife are sponsoring a workshop on the assessment of impacts of wind energy development on wildlife on 5-6 November 2008 at the Discovery Center (5000 Discovery Drive) in The Dalles, Oregon. The primary goal of the workshop is to provide wildlife managers and biologists with an understanding of wildlife/wind energy interactions and current assessment protocols for pre- and post-construction of wind energy installations in the Pacific Northwest. The workshop will be limited to the first 85 people that register. Contact Patty Snow at Patty.Snow@state.or.us or Michael Pope at Michael.D.Pope@state.or.us for additional information.

La Sociedad Mesoamericana para la Biología y la Conservación (SMBC)

El XII Congreso se llevará a cabo en San Salvador, El Salvador, del 10-14 Noviembre 2008, y será organizado conjuntamente por la SMBC, la Fundación Ecológica de El Salvador SalvaNATURA, la Escuela de Biología de la Universidad de El Salvador y el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales. Para los detalles, vea http://www.smbcelsalvador2008.com/.

National Association for Interpretation

NAI will hold its annual national workshop in Portland, OR on 11-15 November 2008 (http://interpnet.com/workshop/). As with NAAEE (see above), we want to continue to build links to educators who can help us meet bird conservation needs.

Bird Conservation Alliance

The BCA will meet on 12 November 2008 at The Nature Conservancy Worldwide Offices Arlington, VA. The topic for this meeting is, “Bird Migration Matters: Building Support for Migratory Bird Conservation.” We will discuss the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act and on current projects funded by the Act – are they working and what projects are needed to address issues facing migratory birds? We will discuss our capacity to engage the general public in bird conservation issues/campaigns and how we can work together to communicate our message and how we can gain more funding for conservation work concerning migratory birds. Come prepared to share your projects, experiences and ideas. There will be a number of expert guest speakers. You may register at http://www.birdconservationalliance.org/.—Alicia Frances King

Wildfires and Invasive Plants in American Deserts

The subject conference will be held 9-11 December 2008 at The Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada. The symposium and workshop will explore the interactions among exotic invasive plants, native plants, and changing wildfire regimes on the Colorado Plateau and in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Mojave, and Great Basin deserts of North America. Examples of exotic invasive plants that
change wildfire regimes include, but are not limited to, cheatgrass, red brome, buffelgrass, and medusahead wildrye. Complicating the exotic invasive species/wildfire cycle is the encroachment and potential dominance of invasive native plants such as juniper and pinyon pine in the cold deserts and mesquite and creosote bush in the hot deserts. The primary goal of this program is to further develop practical frameworks for managing exotic invasive plants
and wildfires. See www.rangelands.org/deserts.

The Second National Gathering: Bird Conservation through Education

The Bird Education Network (BEN) Committee, Council for Environmental Education (CEE), and Flying WILD will host the 2009 National Gathering for bird educators at Jekyll Island, Georgia, 22-26 February 2009. The first National Gathering: Bird Conservation through Education, held in February 2007 in Austin, Texas, was such a great success that this 2009 follow-up event has been planned. Second National Gathering will be held at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel on Jekyll Island, located along the Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding Trail.
The event will start on the evening of Sunday, 22 February and end on the morning of Thursday, 26 February. See logistical and program details at http://www.birdeducation.org/jekyllisland.htm.

PIF National Committee Meetings

The next national PIF meetings will be held in conjunction with the 74th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference which will be held 16-20 March 2009, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. See http://www.wildlifemanagementinstitute.org/ for details.

Spring Meeting of the PIF Western Working Group

The WWG will meet in Penticton, BC, Canada on 14-17 April 2009. This meeting will focus not only on the continuing implementation of the WWG Five-Year Plan, but also on issues of shared interest across the US-CA border. See http://www.penticton.ca/ for information on the region, and watch the WWG listserv and this newsletter for details as they develop.—Rex Sallabanks (rsallaba@idfg.idaho.gov)
Landscape Ecology in Latin America: Challenges and Perspectives

This conference will be held 4-7 October 2009 in Campos do Jordão, Brazil. In the last IALE meeting in Wageningen (July 2007) we decided to organize
the first Latin American IALE meeting in Brazil. This meeting will be an
important step for the consolidation of the Landscape Ecology science in the
continent, and for a more widespread application of this science in the
solution of the severe environmental problems of the region. You can see more information in the site http://www.eventus.com.br/ialebr2009 or
you can also access a PDF file at the US-IALE webpage (http://www.usiale.org).

25th International Ornithological Congress 2010

The 25th International Ornithological Congress will be held in Campos do Jordão, Brazil, 22-28 August 2010. The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) has been formed and a web page is in place (http://www.i-o-c.org or http://www.ib.usp.br/25ioc). The SPC invites you to submit symposium proposals for the next IOC. Symposia are to focus on the general ornithologist and provide up-to-date coverage of current ornithological research. Similar to the last IOC meeting, each symposium will include two keynote addresses that should summarize the global progress of ornithological science in the field over the last four years and address priorities for future research. The call for contributed papers will come in early 2009. Inquires may be made to the General for the Congress at ioc2010@ib.usp.br or to Carol Vleck (ioc2010@iastate.edu).

NEWS OF PEOPLE

Mark Johns

As most of us realize, Mark has long been the model for how to run PIF at the state level. His regular meetings, focused on bird conservation topics of interest, were an essential mechanism for keeping the group together, focused and productive. Mark has taken a new position at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary, NC (http://www.townofcary.org/depts/prdept/parks/hemlock.htm) where he lives. He expects to continue to be active in conservation of birds, reptiles and amphibians, in particular. He may be reached at mark.johns@townofcary.org

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The next newsletter will be issued on 1 January 2009. Items are due 15 December 2008 to Terry Rich (terry_rich@fws.gov).