May 13, 2015 at 7pm
Grasslands, a Vanishing Landscape with Jenny Murtaugh - NYS Department of
Environmental Conservation
Tallgrass prairies once covered 140 millions acres across the United States.
Today, all that remains is between 1 and 4% . Short and mixed grass prairies
are also declining. As grasslands are our fastest declining habitats, so are
the birds utilize them. Of the 48 species of birds breeding in grasslands,
approximately 50% of them are in trouble. Tonight we will explore these
vanishing ecosystems and their inhabitants. Jenny Murtaugh is a Wildlife
Technician in the Wildlife Diversity Unit within the NYS Department of
Environmental Conservation’s Bureau of Wildlife and is based out of DEC
headquarters in Albany. She began working for DEC during her senior year of
Wildlife Management at SUNY Cobleskill in 2009. She has done research through
DEC, the NYS Museum, and SUNY ESF related to coyote genetics and ecology,
fishers, Karner blue butterflies, frosted elfin butterflies, grassland birds,
marsh birds, MAPS bird banding, and winter raptors and is currently focused on
a revision effort of NY’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need list and State
Wildlife Action Plan She presented her personal research on ocelots in Panama
professionally at the Northeast Fish and Wildlife Agencies Conference in
Lancaster, PA in April 2009 and at The Wildlife Society’s 16th Annual National
Conference in Monterey, CA in September 2009. She has been the President of the
New York State Bluebird Society since 2012.Tallgrass prairies once covered 140
millions acres across the United States. Today, all that remains is between 1
and 4% . Short and mixed grass prairies are also declining. As grasslands are
our fastest declining habitats, so are the birds utilize them. Of the 48
species of birds breeding in grasslands, approximately 50% of them are in
trouble. Tonight we will explore these vanishing ecosystems and their
inhabitants. Location: Cold Spring Harbor Library, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Large Meeting Room
Stella MillerPresidentHuntington-Oyster Bay Audubon
"Conservation is sometimes perceived as stopping everything cold, as holding
whooping cranes in higher esteem than people. It is up to science to spread the
understanding that the choice is not between wild places or people, it is
between a rich or an impoverished existence for Man." Thomas Lovejoy
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