As part of the Science and Management Lecture Series, a Wildlife Inventory and Monitoring lecture will be held at 1 p.m. on March 1 in the Bickley Room, Canada Creek Ranch, 23500 Rach House Trail, Atlanta, MI.

The aim of this lecture series is to introduce the attendees to what is and is not science, how science works, how science informs management, and how understanding all the above can make a more informed citizenry, a press release from the Alpena-Montmorency Conservation District said.

The lecture on March 1 is approved for the one-hour continuing education credit from the Society of American Foresters.

Private forest landowners consistently rank wildlife as a value that drives their ownership and related management activities. In northeastern Lower Michigan, many forest landowners prioritize game species of wildlife, while others focus on nongame. Regardless, discussions often arise over what wildlife species are found on a property and the population sizes of different species over time.

This presentation will highlight the challenges involved in surveys for inventory (the documentation of any value for a single period) and monitoring (evaluating changes in any value over time) purposes. An emphasis will be placed on the importance of explicitly integrating scientific literature into surveys and why the limitations of surveys must be transparently communicated alongside findings.

More specifically, Greg Corace, a forest and wildlife ecologist with the Alpena-Montmorency Conservation District, will describe published research in Upper Michigan that has guided inventory and monitoring (including “citizen science”) of Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) and Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus), the first a migratory, colonial waterbird species and the second a nonmigratory, gamebird species.

The free lecture is open to all.