Join us for our Annual December Member Meeting and Monthly Program! A vote to approve our 2025 Board will happen right before the program.

Overview:

Dr. Jeff Hoover, University of Illinois, will present on how the efforts of the Cache River Joint Venture Partnership to defragment bottomland forests led to increased nest survival and decreased cowbird parasitism for birds nesting in the Cache River watershed (in Illinois). Nest survival was most affected by percentage of landcover in agriculture within 1 km, whereas for cowbird parasitism it was percentage of agriculture within 5 km. These results represent the merging of scientific research with conservation in action to evaluate the success of conservation efforts. In the end, these efforts provided tangible benefits to birds breeding in bottomland forests.

About our speaker:

Dr. Hoover has been studying the ecology, behavior and conservation of birds for 3 decades, focusing primarily on bird communities in upland and bottomland forests. He conducts basic and applied research, with an emphasis on behavioral ecology in birds and the response of bird communities to restoration and conservation efforts.