JV Non-breeding Waterfowl (Pxl)

Joint Ventures (JVs) are bird conservation partnerships, established to achieve the goals of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). There are 22 bird habitat JVs in North America, and our JV, the Upper Mississippi/Great Lakes Region Joint Venture (UMGL JV) is located in the Midwest, in a pivotal location in the Mississippi Flyway, for people involved in migratory bird conservation. We are a collaborative, regional group of government agencies, tribes, nonprofit organizations, corporations, universities, and individuals that conserve habitat for the benefit of migratory birds, other wildlife, and people. Our landscape includes eastern Minnesota; all of Wisconsin and Michigan; eastern Nebraska and Kansas; western, southern and eastern Iowa; northern Missouri, Illinois and Indiana; and northwestern Ohio. To address Waterfowl habitat limitation during the non-breeding period and improve population trend in our JV, we aim to maximize species recruitment through conservation of high quality non-breeding habitats. To help achieve this objective, we compared county-level duck harvest to relative wetland abundance. We assumed that wetland area was more limited for non-breeding ducks where harvest/wetland was higher. In each county, we appraised average duck harvest (1995–2014) relative to county size and percent coverage of wetlands important to distinct non-breeding waterfowl guilds: Emergent, Forested (deciduous), Aquatic Bed, and Unconsolidated Bottom and Shore (see Appendix B in JV Waterfowl Habitat Conservation Strategy – 2017). Harvest neighborhoods (based on kernel density analysis) were ranked by the density of duck harvest/wetland area and the resulting map emphasized important non-breeding areas with high harvest relative to wetland coverage. Finally, we converted the original raster dataset of this model to TIFF format (this product) to improve data visualization, assessment, and interactivity online. The raster map was published in the JV Waterfowl Habitat Conservation Strategy – 2017 Revision (Figure 15B). It was also the main layer in Figure 1B in JV's technical report 2017-1 entitled: Targeting Conservation for Waterfowl and People: A Decision Support Tool. This product shows the distribution and relative density (scale of 0 – 1; values of low – high) of the most valuable areas (pixel neighborhoods) across the JV region, to acquire or manage whatever the required conservation action at the local scale is (i.e., retention, protection, and or restoration). Aggregate-priority-areas were predicted to produce the most value for the decision makers. This product can be scaled-down (i.e., stepped-down to state, watershed, county, or any smaller target area) and supplemented with additional local data for customized output maps depicting best areas for Waterfowl non-breeding habitat restoration vs. retention vs. enhancement. See the JV website and related step-down publications for details. Links: To download this TIFF dataset and related data, metadata, and documentation, please contact us. To view and explore this TIFF dataset and related data, please visit the online experience of the UMGL JV Decision Support Tools. References: Model codes and final steps (for internal use of UMGLJV staff): albers_Jv17WfBrdNo → converted to TIFF and projected on-the-fly to WGS84 → renamed to Jv17WfBrdNoR. For internal use of USFWS staff: Data Management Plan (DMP) ID = 770; Title: UMGL JV Non-breeding Waterfowl Distribution.