Guest Speaker: Anne Yen
Anne will be presenting on the plight of Western and Clark’s Grebes in Idaho. The North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) reports a -2.73% yearly decline in Western and Clark’s Grebe abundance between 1966 to 2015 for the Western BBS Region which equates to a 75% decline over those 50 years. Western and Clark’s Grebes face various threats at their breeding and wintering sites. However, no data or past studies are available to assess which of these various threats are indeed responsible for the declines. Moreover, threats to Western and Clark’s Grebe populations may vary regionally and declines may not be attributable to just one causal factor. Western and Clark’s Grebes have declined in Idaho more so than those in other regions. Only 2 large breeding colonies remain active in Idaho and recruitment has been very low. The exact cause(s) of such low recruitment at both locations are unknown and is the focus of our research.
Anne Yen is a Master’s student in Wildlife Sciences at the University of Idaho in Moscow. She was born and raised in suburban Detroit, Michigan and got her B.S. in Resource Ecology from the University of Michigan. Prior to attending the University of Idaho, she spent about 14 field seasons working with various federal and state agencies as well as non-profit organizations across the continental US and the Hawaiian Islands in wildlife monitoring and habitat restoration. Her family lives in King County and she calls Washington State her home state. Anne is also an artist and has a Certificate in Natural Science Illustration from the University of Washington. She also serves as a Graduate Student Mentor with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program Collaborative at the University of Idaho, a program supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fish and wildlife fields.