Prior to coming to Forbes last summer, I worked with the Gulf of Mexico Avian Monitoring Network (gomamn.org). GoMAMN came together after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill to better coordinate how we collect data about birds, so we’re better able to assess the impacts of restoration and management in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the impact of one off events, such as oil spills and hurricanes.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of oil coming ashore from Deepwater Horizon. This vast oil spill has highlighted the risk present to the coastal habitats and offshore waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico – one of the most ecologically and socio-economically important ecosystems in the world. Many of the waterfowl, and other birds we enjoy here in Illinois, spend their winters in the wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico, making these habitats important for those species’ continued abundance.

As part of the Deepwater Horizon settlement, large-scale restoration work has begun in the northern Gulf of Mexico and presents a new set of opportunities to understand bird populations and advance bird-habitat conservation. For this restoration process to succeed, decision makers will need information on bird ecology, life-history strategies, and responses to environmental change to account for the myriad stressors from natural processes to anthropogenic activities that affect the health and persistence of bird populations.

I served as one of the editors for the recently published “Strategic Bird Monitoring Guidelines for the Northern Gulf of Mexico” (https://gomamn.org/strategic-bird-monitoring-guidelines). Which lays out specific monitoring and research needs that will help us evaluate restoration of the Gulf of Mexico as well as better understand how to manage habitats for specific birds. Forbes Biological Station will be involved with making these guidelines reality, as a new project Forbes is leading, came about because of needs outlined in the Strategic Guidelines. We’ll be doing work, studying the impacts of prescribed fire (fires intentionally set to manage habitat) in coastal wetlands, on three species of high conservation concern, the Mottled Duck, Black Rail and Yellow Rail. Over the next 4 years we’ll be surveying birds, and collecting data on fire histories, and vegetation response, to help managers make more informed choices about how to manage coastal wetlands.