Accurate waterbird counts help inform science and management for many stations in the NWRS but can be time- and resource-intensive to collect. This summer, IWMM initiated a special project with help from Alex Kumar, a Directorate Resource Assistants Fellows Program (DFP) contributor. The goal of the project was to make IWMM data faster and easier to collect while maintaining accurate abundance estimates. Analysis of data from several refuges revealed that sampling effort can be reduced by 25-50% while still obtaining abundance estimates within 10% of true numbers. This translates to a significant savings in effort when a specified sub-sampling method is applied. Look for more details to come as we finalize the project, but this is exciting news for refuges with waterbird Resources of Concern!
