Dennis:

> Clearly it behooves "serious researchers" to set up their projects and the
> training for them in such a way that the people who are involved in them
> quickly become experts themselves. Otherwise, such projects may have to be
> left to the experts, and fewer of them will be accomplished. And of
> course, with unending threats to the environment, the pressure is on to
> learn even more, even faster. Arrgghh.

This is a point that I think a lot of folks miss. I know that the Goshutes
project was extremely lax at training folks when I first became involved,
and I think one of my major contributions to the project was my ability
to forthrightly and emotionally attack the founder on his lax attitude.

We now have a training manual, hire an experienced bander whose job
it is to train newcomers (and check out returnees before allowing them
to measure birds or assist in training), and pay much more attention
to how we divide labor 'tween newcomers and veterans. Our mortality
rate has dropped from about 1 of 750 to less than 1 of 1500 (birds
banded, not volunteers!) as another side-effect of more attention to
training and insisting that folks take a role in the project
commensurate with their experience and skill level.

Banding studies which occur during migration - not just raptor studies! -
are all, I should think, hampered by the fact that both spring and
fall migrations largely occur during the school year. Thus, one large,
potential pool of volunteers - college students who are interested in
pursuing field work - aren't available. We get a lot of 21/22/23 yr
olds who have a BS and are doing a little field work before re-entering
school to earn their MS, but that pool of potential volunteers isn't
large enough to meet the needs of all the projects out there which
depend on volunteers. And, of course, being perpetually broke wears
down even the most dedicated of field workers.

Hey, fall shorebird migration is to some extent an exception to this,
with the season beginning in July for some species, at least!

Thus, during the heyday of spotted owl hooting work, there weren't
nearly enough folks with field experience available to do the work
during the full season, which begins in very early spring. Even
though the USFS paid folks (BLM now, at least, depends largely on
volunteers who are paid a small stipend to cover housing costs).
They just depleted the pool of experienced folks and hired just
about anyone who was willing to spend cold nights out in the woods
dodging potshots from loggers. At least, this was true on "the
Hood" (Mt. Hood NF). Most of these folks learned to do a good
job, and of course there was a cadre of experienced field workers.
One nice thing about field work - many who do it, whether "biologists"
or not, are dedicated and return for more than one season, especially
if there's even a little pay involved. So after the first season or
two, there was a pool of folks available who not only had field
experience, but spotted owl experience.

Currently in Oregon, I know that marbled murrelet work is still to
some extent done by volunteers. Same situation, though - I know
one who volunteered for three seasons, so of course became skilled
at the job. But, when we have Senator Slade proclaiming that only
proven nest sites will be spared harvest for this bird, whose nest
is almost impossible to find, it is scary to realize that the fate
of many stands of old-growth depends on the skill of recently-trained
volunteers.

Bless their hearts :) Curse the Senator's :(


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>