May Banquet

Tue, May 6, 2014, 6:00 pm
Blue Spruce County Park Lodge
Speaker: David Yeany, PA Natural Heritage Program

Description

Setting the Stage for Coastal Wetland Conservation: Marylandï¿½s Marsh Bird Survey

During the spring and summer of 2012, PNHP coordinated Marylandï¿½s portion of the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program (SHARP), a two-year survey of tidal marsh birds throughout the northeastern U.S. from Virginia to Maine. Among wetlands worldwide, Atlantic tidal marshes have one of the highest rates of endemic vertebrate species, most of which are birds. With climate change threatening to flood many of these marshes over the next 100 years, the SHARP survey results will help determine population status and geographic distribution for saltmarsh birds across the northeast. This information will be invaluable to conservation planning efforts to protect tidal marshes and the specialized species which depend on them. The SHARP survey targeted secretive marsh bird species like Clapper Rail and Least Bittern as well as saltmarsh obligates like Saltmarsh Sparrow and Seaside Sparrow. While fighting wind, weather, and tides, we conducted more than 750 surveys and counted thousands of target marsh birds on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. More information on the SHARP can be found at www.tidalmarshbirds.org.

In October 2011, David joined the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program (PNHP) as an ornithologist and conservation planning specialist in the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) Pittsburgh office. David provides support to numerous conservation planning projects, management of the statewide Natural Heritage Area database, performs GIS analyses, and provides capacity for field ornithology and bird conservation work for PNHP and WPC. His work focuses on collecting, interpreting, and providing ecological information, often utilizing GIS tools, for use in planning at regional, county, and municipal levels, conservation organizations and state agencies. David brings his experience with conservation planning and avian field studies, skills with GIS, and a passion for conserving biodiversity to his position.

Before coming to WPC/PNHP, David was the Important Bird Areas Coordinator for Audubon Maryland-DC. At Audubon, he helped identify critical bird habitats, developed conservation strategies for IBAs, and conducted monitoring for populations of at-risk birds. He has also worked at Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Training Center in Annville, PA, and for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, District 8 (Clarion), doing wildlife and habitat inventory and research.

David has an M.S. in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology from Frostburg State University in Frostburg, MD and a B.S. in Biology from Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA. He is a native of Forest County and currently lives with his wife, Colleen, just outside Pittsburgh in Cheswick.