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Bird Studies Canada, in partnership with Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service (Ontario Region), developed the Marsh Monitoring Program (MMP) in Ontario in 1994. With the financial support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency - Great Lakes National Program Office and the Great Lakes Protection Fund, the MMP was launched throughout the U.S. Great Lakes states in 1995. Carried out by a network of dedicated "Citizen Scientist" volunteer surveyors, the MMP functions to provide long-term monitoring of marsh-dependent bird and anuran (frog and toad) species in marsh habitats throughout the Great Lakes basin.
The dataset consists of over 5500 stations with approximately 650 stations surveyed each year within Great Lakes basin coastal and inland marshes. Marsh bird surveys are run twice each year, 10 days apart between 20 May and 5 July, and consist of survey routes with 1-8 listening stations spaced at least 250 m apart. The survey period consists of a five-minute silent listening period, followed by a five-minute species call broadcast period, and a final five-minute silent listening period. Surveys are conducted during early morning or evening hours.
For the purpose of this website, abundance indices, based on counts of individuals per survey station, were derived for bird species in each survey year using a mixed-modelling Bayesian framework (e.g., each survey route had its own random intercept) to generate species-specific annual indices. Another model fit an overall linear trend for each species (e.g., to estimate the overall change per year over 15 years).
Development and implementation of the MMP has been funded by Environment Canada’s Great Lakes Sustainability Fund, Canadian Wildlife Service, U.S. EPA–GLNPO, U.S. EPA Lake Erie Team and the U.S. Great Lakes Protection Fund. The program has received important support from a variety of conservation partners, including Wildlife Habitat Canada, U.S. Geological Survey - Biological Resources Division, Ontario Nature, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Stewardship, National Audubon Society, Eastern Habitat Joint Venture and Wetland Habitat Fund, Ontario Trillium Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and provincial agencies and regional conservation groups. Finally, implementation and success of the Marsh Monitoring Program is made possible only by the participation of our dedicated volunteer Citizen Scientists.
For more information on the Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program see: http://www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/glmmp/index.jsp?lang=EN&targetpg=index.
