Working Group Committees

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee provides guidance on the focus and activities of the working group.

Amber Roth – Co-Chair, University of Maine
Ruth Bennett – Co-Chair, Smithsonian Institution Migratory Bird Center
Ana Gonzalez-Prieto – Environment and Climate Change Canada
Andrés Anchondo – American Bird Conservancy
Andy Forbes – US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3
Becky Keller – Appalachian Mountain Joint Venture
Becky Stewart – Canadian Wildlife Service, ECCC
Curtis Smalling – Audubon North Carolina
David Buehler – former Steering Committee Chair, University of Tennessee
Donna Ray – US Forest Service – Region 8
Fabiola Rodríguez-Vásquez – Tulane University
Ian Davidson – BirdLife International
Jeff Larkin – Indiana University of Pennsylvania
John Brett – Canadian Wildlife Service, ECCC
Leslie Bulluck – Virginia Commonwealth University
Mike Burrell – Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Nick Bayly – SELVA
Randy Dettmers – US Fish and Wildlife Service – Region 5
Ron Rohrbaugh – Audubon Pennsylvania
Sara Barker Swarthout – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Shawn Graff – American Bird Conservancy
Tracy Grazia – US Forest Service – Region 9

Communications & Human Dimensions Committee

The mission of the Communications/Human Dimensions Committee is to build relationships that increase our science delivery, enabling people to transform science into action and achieve Golden-winged Warbler conservation goals. We recognize that our success is dependent on improving our understanding of human values and how humans interact with Golden-winged Warblers, their communities, and issues relevant to their conservation. In the short-term, we are focusing on re-activating working group members, reaching and engaging new members, revitalizing our existing communications tools, and recruiting committee members with expertise in communications and conservation social science. Eventually, we will transition to inventorying our existing assets and capacity, building a road map for strategic communications and engagement, and undertaking activities to support achievement of our five year goals (2021-2026).

Full Annual Cycle Research & Monitoring Committee

The goal of the Full Annual Cycle Research & Monitoring Committee is to identify and prioritize critical knowledge gaps regarding Golden-winged Warbler and to support projects seeking funding to fill these gaps. The Committee has identified the need to understand where and how Golden-winged Warbler populations are most limited in their life cycle. The Committee’s initial focus is to assess what is required to build a full life cycle demographic model and identify additional data that could be collected in the short term to parameterize this model.

Alianza Alas Doradas (Non-breeding Season Committee)

The goal of Alianza Alas Doradas is to direct and facilitate research, monitoring, and management activities for Golden-winged Warblers both during migration and during their non-breeding season residency in Central and South America. Conservation act actions will occur in concert with actions that also benefit priority Neotropical resident species.

Breeding Grounds Committee

The Breeding Grounds Management and Conservation Committee’s goal is to help direct habitat management and conservation actions intended to sustain Golden-winged Warbler populations across the breeding range—in concert with other bird conservation priorities and initiatives. The committee will develop outreach materials to target land managers and the general public. Because of unique management needs in each of the regions occupied by Golden-winged Warblers, management priorities will be identified at both continental and regional scales. The Breeding Grounds Committee works on facilitating adaptive management and conservation of GWWA on their breeding grounds in support of meeting GWWA Conservation Plan objectives, with an emphasis on multi-species frameworks for implementation. During the coming year this Committee will initially focus its work on two activities: 1) review the priority conservation objectives and the related tasks/actions identified in the GWWA Conservation Plan and identify any conservation activities on the breeding grounds that are missing, and 2) develop, facilitate and/or implement specific breeding grounds projects in support of meeting the conservation objectives from the Plan.