Director of Conservation Programs
Ducks Unlimited Western Region
Bio:
Jeff McCreary is the Director of Conservation Programs for Ducks Unlimited’s Western Region. In this capacity he has been instrumental in the conservation of thousands of acres across the western United States.
Jeff's career spans more than two decades of wetlands conservation. In 1999 he began his tenure with DU as a biologist in the Intermountain West developing, managing, and implementing wetland and associated habitat conservation projects from the Mexico to the Great Salt Lake to the Canadian border. In 2005, Jeff moved back to his native California and managed DU’s Delta and San Francisco Bay program before taking his current position in 2010. Today he supervises a team of biologists and engineers implementing DU’s wetland conservation activities throughout the nine western most states. Jeff received a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from the University of California at Davis and a master’s degree in wetland ecology from Duke University.
Title: The Great Salt Lake: Linkages to the Pacific Flyway - Birds, People, Water
Abstract: The Great Salt Lake plays literally a pivotal role supporting birds from the Pacific Flyways. Not only as it relates to other western significant birds areas because of the tremendous avian populations they collectively support, but fundamentally it is it’s water that links the Central Valley of California, the Southern Oregon Northeast California (SONEC) region, and northern breeding grounds together. The drought underway across the west is exacerbated by competing water demands: environmental, urban, and agricultural. The Great Salt Lake is a case in point and caught in the middle. Finding the balance in which all water users can flourish is the challenge ahead. Are you ready?