ORAL PRESENTER CO-AUTHORS: Tony Kuchma, Randy Cornelius, and Joe Torres, Oneida Nation; Tom Prestby, Audubon Great Lakes; Patti Schevers, NEW Audubon TITLE: Oneida bird monitoring program: Connecting community science and Oneida culture, history, and language ABSTRACT: Since 2021, UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, Northeastern Wisconsin (NEW) Audubon, and Audubon Great Lakes formed a deep, collaborative partnership with the Oneida Nation through the successful implementation of a volunteer bird monitoring program at multiple restoration sites on the Oneida Nation Reservation located near Green Bay, Wisconsin. During the past three years, with the help of more than 100 volunteers, we conducted breeding grassland, marsh, and forest bird surveys and spring and fall migratory shorebird and waterfowl surveys at locations spread across five restoration sites, totaling nearly 200 bird species and >75,000 bird observations. Program goals include 1) collecting an inventory of bird use on Oneida’s restoration lands, 2) providing bird-informed land management guidance to the Oneida Nation at their key restoration sites, 3) building a community of birdwatchers, 4) integrating Oneida’s beautiful culture, history, and language throughout the project with the leadership of an Oneida Tribal Elder, and 5) building bridges between the Oneida and non-tribal communities. Our collaborative project has witnessed incredible successes in terms of bird data collected; the integration of Oneida culture, history, and language into the project; a summer nature camp for Oneida youth; number of people engaged; volunteer events within the Oneida community; and land management decisions made. I will provide a brief overview of the bird monitoring program, describe how our partnership has been effective for wetland and prairie conservation, and share a few “lessons learned.” BIO: Erin Giese (she/her) is a senior scientist at UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Center for Biodiversity. She is a principal investigator for the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program and project manager for the Oneida Bird Monitoring Program. She currently serves on the board of directors for Audubon Great Lakes and Northeastern Wisconsin Audubon.