Study Plan Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gxbCcKwno9XYxU6hemthu6B4WZztvAjY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115747658282118526843&rtpof=true&sd=true
In 2025, we convened a committee of state agency biologists, land managers, NGO conservationists, and university scientists. Through a series of meetings and discussion sessions we identified information needs for wintering woodcock, and developed a research plan to address these needs. The committee identify five information gaps: 1) lack of tools to identify regional wintering hotspots and priority areas for conservation, 2) importance of woodcock reproduction on the wintering grounds, 3) general woodcock wintering habitat ecology and habitat best-management practices, 4) the evolving nature of woodcock harvest management on the wintering grounds, and 5) tools to monitor wintering woodcock. The research plan lays out specific objectives and methods in each area, using both existing data from the Eastern Woodcock Migration Research Cooperative, and focused future field studies to address specific management-relevant questions that group members determined could not be answered with existing data.
The full study plan linked above sets specific goals and objectives around these information gaps, proposes methods to address each, and outlines a study design that allows for shared methods and data across the wintering range, while also providing individual states' capacity to address locally-relevant research questions.
In 2025, we convened a committee of state agency biologists, land managers, NGO conservationists, and university scientists. Through a series of meetings and discussion sessions we identified information needs for wintering woodcock, and developed a research plan to address these needs. The committee identify five information gaps: 1) lack of tools to identify regional wintering hotspots and priority areas for conservation, 2) importance of woodcock reproduction on the wintering grounds, 3) general woodcock wintering habitat ecology and habitat best-management practices, 4) the evolving nature of woodcock harvest management on the wintering grounds, and 5) tools to monitor wintering woodcock. The research plan lays out specific objectives and methods in each area, using both existing data from the Eastern Woodcock Migration Research Cooperative, and focused future field studies to address specific management-relevant questions that group members determined could not be answered with existing data.
The full study plan linked above sets specific goals and objectives around these information gaps, proposes methods to address each, and outlines a study design that allows for shared methods and data across the wintering range, while also providing individual states' capacity to address locally-relevant research questions.