Managing Water for Birds—A Tool for the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Southeastern Oregon book cover
Nature · 2025 · en

Managing Water for Birds—A Tool for the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Southeastern Oregon

by Cassandra D. Smith

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About this book

Water levels shape the feeding and nesting habitat available to birds at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Cassandra D. Smith presents a practical analytical tool for examining how changing water conditions affect habitat across this important southeastern Oregon wetland.

The report explains the study area, the information used to describe water and vegetation conditions, and the construction and use of the management tool. Its maps, methods, and results connect spatial observations with decisions about where and when water can support bird habitat. Readers interested in wetland ecology can see how scientific measurements become a framework for comparing management choices rather than a single fixed prescription.

Published in 2025 as USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2025–5024, the work is a complete professional report with its original figures, methods, references, and agency credits. The publisher’s cover photograph shows an American coot nest in Malheur Lake, taken by USGS photographer Cassandra Smith.

Cassandra D. Smith. U.S. Geological Survey, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20255024. Original agency, author, and photograph credits retained.