Chairs: Auriel Fournier, Nicole Michel, Dale Gawlik

 Date and time: Tuesday, May 05 at 10:30am to Tuesday, May 05 at 5:00pm

 location: 201C

 Description: Across the Gulf, and along its coast, hundreds of species of birds and millions of individuals migrate, winter and breed annually. To ensure their populations are sustained for centuries to come, active restoration and management of habitat and populations is required, and uncertainties remain as to what actions are best taken and in what context. In order to effectively address those uncertainties, research needs to be designed from the ground up by managers and decision makers as well as scientists. Over the past 10+ years there has been a growing community in avian conservation embracing and using the tools of co-production to design and complete work to directly inform uncertainties identified by land managers, engineers, biologists, prescribed fire practitioners and others. The co-production process ranges from co-learning, where participants exchange knowledge and adapt their perspectives, to shared decision-making. This session invites talks from projects that have approached different questions related to the management of birds, their habitats, and human disturbance of those habitats through a lens of co-production. By including a diverse set of projects, this session aims to highlight common strengths of the coproduction process as well as to identify project traits that are best suited for particular methods for engaging decision makers and end users of the work to become equal partners in designing and executing the studies.