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Volunteers sought for loon census this weekend on Adirondack lakes, St. Lawrence River

Posted 7/16/18

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Adirondack Program seeks volunteers to survey loons on Adirondack lakes and the St. Lawrence River as part of their 18th Adirondack Loon Census. The event …

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Volunteers sought for loon census this weekend on Adirondack lakes, St. Lawrence River

Posted

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Adirondack Program seeks volunteers to survey loons on Adirondack lakes and the St. Lawrence River as part of their 18th Adirondack Loon Census.

The event will take place on Saturday, July 21from 8 to 9 a.m.

Participants can choose from a list of available lakes and ponds in the Adirondack region to sign up for and survey.

The Loon Census includes water bodies from across the North Country region, including the St. Lawrence River, all of St. Lawrence County, and as far east as Plattsburgh and Rouses Point. If any local residents are interested in observing loons on the St. Lawrence River specifically, they can reach out to Nicole Gokey at the Thousand Islands Land Trust via email at ngokey@tiltrust.org.

Anyone interested in volunteering in the Adirondacks can learn how to sign up by visiting www.wcsadirondacks.org, or by calling 518-891-8874 ext. 106 or emailing wcsaccp@gmail.com.

With the help of local Adirondack residents and visitor volunteers, the census enables WCS to collect important data on the status of the breeding loon population in and around the Adirondack Park and across New York State. The results guide management decisions and policies affecting loons, according to WCS.

During the census, volunteers will report on the number of adult and immature loons and loon chicks that they observe. Other states will conduct similar loon censuses simultaneously, and the results will be collated to create a regional overview of the loon’s population status, WCS said.

“We gain an important regional picture of the loon population each year through the Annual Loon Census,” Zoë Smith, director of WCS’s Adirondack Program, said in a news release. “We are indebted to the hundreds of volunteers who participate as citizen scientists in this important research. Only through the participation of this dedicated group of volunteers, are we able to assemble so much valuable information to help guide future management decisions.”

The census has been conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society Adirondack Program since 2001, in collaboration with the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation in Saranac Lake. With the upcoming closure of the WCS Adirondack Program office in September 2018, the loon census will be conducted by the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation.

For live updates, follow @wcs_adirondacks on Twitter and Instagram.