Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Manomet’s New Shorebird Management Manual

American Oystercatchers are among the many shorebirds and other species studied across the Western Hemisphere by Manomet staff and associates.

Manomet has developed a new Shorebird Management Manual with guidance from a steering committee of shorebird experts, contributing authors, and the cumulative work of hundreds of conservation scientists, ornithologists, and land managers. This important resource provides technical support to help land managers and government officials who are involved in making habitat management decisions that can help stabilize and increase populations of shorebirds throughout the Americas.

“In 1992, Manomet published the first Shorebird Management Manual,” explained Brad Winn, Director of Shorebird Habitat Management at Manomet. “Our collective understanding of these amazing birds has evolved considerably since then, and we knew it was time to create another resource for today’s conservation practitioners. We compiled this overview of management approaches and shorebird ecology to help inspire and guide beneficial habitat improvements everywhere these birds go.”

Steering Committee member Brad Andres added, “As we have developed flyway-scale conservation frameworks for shorebirds, a common theme is the continued education and outreach to land managers about the when, how, and where to improve and expand habitats for shorebirds. The revised manual provides a great resource for habitat managers.” Andres also serves as National Coordinator of the US Shorebird Conservation Partnership, US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This manual includes 13 case studies in habitat management from across North America, Central, and South America. These real world scenarios, written by field experts, focus on strategies to improve shorebird productivity and survival in the Americas south of the Arctic. Each case study includes information about the species benefitted, the threats at the specific site, actions taken to protect shorebirds at the site, plus outcomes and conservation advice.

The Shorebird Management Manual is the core curriculum for Manomet’s Habitats for Shorebirds workshops, and serves as a stand-alone resource to help guide habitat improvements that benefit shorebirds at the flyway, national, regional, and local planning levels. This manual’s key objective is that it can help site managers recognize local habitat values, understand the threats to the birds that depend on the habitats, and identify management approaches to alleviate challenges to survival.

Winn added, “Shorebirds need our collective help at all spatial scales, and working together we can all increase the carrying capacity of important habitat, site by site, throughout the migration paths of shorebirds.”

Plans are underway to translate the manual into Spanish and to make the manual available in print, but you can already download the Shorebird Management Manual at https://www.manomet.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Iglecia_and_Winn_2021_AShorebirdManagementManual-012021-web.pdf


Centered in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Manomet is a nonprofit founded in 1969 as a bird banding lab, although its emphasis on science and research have expanded to focus on ecosystem management and resilience, shorebird conservation, and educating tomorrow’s leaders about the importance of the natural world. See www.manomet.org for more information.