Wisconsin

In May, 2001 partners in Wisconsin launched the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative (WBCI). Modeled after the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI), this historic partnership is dedicated to delivering "the full spectrum of bird conservation emphasizing voluntary stewardship". WBCI currently has over 150 endorsing partners and is engaged in a wide variety of bird conservation activities throughout Wisconsin, ranging from conservation planning, to monitoring, to outreach and education. It is the first statewide all-bird conservation initiative of its kind in the United States. One of the major projects that WBCI undertook from its inception was the Important Bird Areas program. The IBA program is dedicated to identifying the most critical habitats for birds in Wisconsin using science-based criteria, and maintaining and improving those habitats through voluntary, collaborative conservation and stewardship actions. The IBA program made great strides starting in 2003 and currently has 30 officially recognized IBAs encompassing some 1.2 million acres, with additional recognition events planned during 2006. These IBAs occur on state, federal, tribal, municipal, and private lands. The IBA program has partnered with a wide variety of agencies, organizations, and individuals in the identification and recognition of these sites. Volunteer data collection efforts at several sites, such as Bong State Recreation Area, have been instrumental in advancing sites from nomination, through technical review, to recognition; we hope to build on these volunteer monitoring efforts in the stewardship phase. With the first round of identification close to completion, the IBA program is focusing attention on monitoring, conservation strategies, and integrating IBAs into WBCI's all-bird conservation plan and other state and regional site-based planning efforts.