CREATION OF AN INTEGRATED WATERBIRD DATABASE FOR THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER 
SYSTEM AND ITS POTENTIAL VALUE.

Melissa S. Meier1 and Patricia J. Heglund2
1U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La 
Crosse, WI 54603.  2 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 3 Biological 
Monitoring and Database Team, La Crosse, WI 54603.

The Environmental Management Program (EMP) partnership has an interest in the 
status and trends of waterfowl, shorebirds, and wading birds that use the 
Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) throughout the year.  Although many 
waterbird monitoring projects have been undertaken or are ongoing in many 
areas by state and Federal agencies along the UMR, much of the information 
was not easily accessible to river managers and biologists who must develop 
future waterbird management plans and management actions.  In collaboration 
with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 Biologists, we compiled long-
term and historical waterbird data collected by National Wildlife Refuges and 
their cooperators along the UMRS.  These data were combined into a single 
database (Microsoft Access 2003) along with additional abiotic information 
that might relate to species occurrence or abundance (e.g., geographic 
location, river mile, area of survey unit, disturbance, etc.). Funding for 
this work was provided by the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP; a 
component of the EMP) and the majority of data was generously contributed by 
the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, the Mark Twain 
National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and the Illinois River National Wildlife 
Refuge Complex.  One important benefit of the waterbird database is that it 
provides an electronic repository for waterbird data collected on the Upper 
Mississippi River allowing resource managers to create reports or graphs for 
such things as changes in waterbird numbers over time, species lists, 
migration phenology, etc.  Our primary objective was to summarize the 
waterbird data to determine if they can be used to track status and trends of 
various waterbird species or groups of species.  The database could also 
potentially be used to assess the value of UMR management efforts, such as 
EMP and Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects, to migrating and 
breeding waterbirds.  Another possibility is correlating the waterbird data 
with other LTRMP data (e.g., vegetation, invertebrates) to see if additional 
trends emerge involving waterbird habitat use on the UMRS.  The long-term 
goals of the LTRMP are to understand the River system, determine resource 
trends, develop management alternatives, manage information, and develop 
useful products.  While there are currently no long-term plans for 
maintaining the database, it contains a wealth of information that could 
contribute to reaching the goals set forth by the EMP and LTRMP if the 
partners will commit to its support and management.
  
Keywords:  database, National Wildlife Refuge, status and trends, Upper 
Mississippi River, waterbirds

Melissa S. Meier
2630 Fanta Reed Road,  La Crosse, WI 54603
Ph: (608) 781-6396  Fax: (608) 783-6066
mmeier@usgs.gov
Preference: poster; willing to convert?: No