News about the U.S. Bird Banding Lab

USGS establishes federal advisory committee for the U.S. Bird Banding Lab (May 2005)

The Ornithological Council congratulates and thanks the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the Interior for establishing a federal advisory committee for the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL). Although the BBL has made remarkable strides in recent years - since the 1997 "Buckley Report" <http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/resources/nabbp21.htm>  - to modernize its operations and to address various management issues - there are still many issues of concern to the various sectors of the bird banding community.

The Ornithological Council asked the USGS to consider forming a federal advisory committee to help the BBL continue its progress towards becoming a center of excellence, and the USGS (and DOI) have apparently agreed that doing so would be worthwhile.

The purpose of the Advisory Committee will be to represent the interests of the bird banding community, including both game and nongame birds, in advising the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), on current and future management of the Bird Banding Laboratory. The Committee will develop a clear, concise report defining a vision for the Bird Banding Laboratory over the next ten to fifteen years, and recommend priority actions that should be taken to
address the needs of Federal and State regulatory agencies, as well as bird conservation, research, and banding organizations, to ensure the Laboratory's excellence into the 21st century. In order for the Secretary to hear from the bird banding and data user community, Committee membership will include: The USGS; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Canadian Wildlife Service; State wildlife conservation agencies; bird banding organizations; academia; professional and technical ornithological societies; and nonprofit conservation and bird hunting organizations. Expertise in the science of bird banding/marking and the application of the data to address game and non-game bird management, conservation, research, and policy issues, must be represented within the sectors listed above.

BBL appoints new lab chief (June 2004)

Monica Tomosy has been selected to be the new BBL Chief.  Ms. Tomosy comes to USGS from USFWS.  For the last year she has been on an Interagency transfer as the acting USGS/BRD Imperiled Species Coordinator.  Her previous position with the Service was as the leader for the development of a Listing Action Prioritization Process for the agency's national endangered species listing program workload.  Prior to that Ms. Tomosy was a course leader in the Environmental Conservation Branch of the Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  Ms.Tomosy has had hands-on banding experience with Northern Spotted Owls and Puerto Rican Parrots.  The major challenge facing Ms. Tomosy and the Laboratory is the conversion from a hierarchal to a relational database; the new system hold great promise to improve BBL functioning, especially the ability to serve outside customers.

Banding permit policy changes on hold

Following the 1998 Buckley report that examined BBL's philosophy and practices
< http://www.pwrc.nbs.gov/nabbp21.htm)>  the BBL formed six task forces to look at each of six issues in more depth.  The recommendations of these task forces were reviewed by an implementation team, which decided on changes to be made to BBL practice and procedure.  On 19 May 2000, BBL sent a third letter to banders, explaining these planned changes and asking for comments. See <http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/OC/experthelp/BBL3.html> for details.

The concerns raised by the Ornithological Council - both as to the substance of the proposed changes and the manner in which the changes were being made - caused the U.S. Geological Survey (parent organization of the Bird Banding Lab) to place a hold on finalization and implementation of those policies. The Ornithological Council has been advised that any permit policy changes will be made in consultation with the Division of Migratory Bird Management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The USFWS is the agency that has both responsibility for implementing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the regulatory authority to write implementing regulations. Due to a severe staffing shortage and regulatory backlog at the Division of Migratory Bird Management, it is unlikely that the USFWS and the USGS will move forward with changes to banding permit policies in the near future.

Major technology upgrades nearly complete

The U.S. Bird Banding Lab has been working steadily towards the installation of state-of-the-art software and hardware that will vastly improve the Lab's ability to receive and process banding data. The primary change involves the conversion from a hierarchical to a relational database; the new system holds great promise to improve BBL functioning, especially the ability to serve outside customers.

Upgrades to Band Manager

The software conversion now nearing completion is likely to be followed by upgrades to Band Manager. The Ornithological Council has brought to the attention of the BBL several changes that have been suggested by ornithologists who use Band Manager; BBL managers agreed to consider these changes once they begin upgrades to Band Manager.

Band supply

The Ornithological Council has devoted substantial time and energy to what was a chronic issue, but now seems to be resolving - band shortages. The efforts of the BBL to find new, reliable suppliers seem to have succeeded, and over the past 12 - 18 months, very sizeable band orders have been placed for nearly 2 million bands.

The Ornithological Council has requested for some time that the BBL provide hard metal bands. In March 2004 - the BBL notified the Ornithological Council that the BBL had asked a U.S. manufacturer to provide hard metal bands. The BBL, of course, is concerned about band quality and other manufacturing issues. However, it seems that progress is being made  by the BBL in securing hard metal bands. In June, we learned that the BBL had received samples to evaluate and had placed an order, subject to approval of the samples.

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