Sessions
Symposium: Current research on amphibians and reptiles in the Upper Midwest
10:00 AM - 12:15 PM Tue
Title: Upper Mississippi River Restoration: Adaptive management for Big Muddy Anurans
Abstract: The WDNR has partnered with neighboring state and federal agencies on multimillion-dollar, large-scale habitat management projects on the Upper Mississippi River for more than three decades. Projects maintain an assortment of techniques to restore and protect habitat for fish and wildlife, including wetland habitats. In 2015, staff began investigating what type of wetland construction would create optimum frog and toad habitat on this large river system, following the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program's protocol. Field staff assessed two types of constructed wetlands in three separate backwater pools based on presence/absence surveys. The goal of the project, which is now in its fifth year, is to provide research data to inform managers regarding wetland design types that benefit these small inhabitants of the Big Muddy, the Mississippi River.
Bio: Brenda Kelly joins us from Wisconsin's west coast, where she works as a wildlife biologist with a diverse team of federal, state, and non-government partners who share a common passion of a complex ecosystem: the Mississippi River.