Avian Ecologist
Sageland Collaborative
Bio:
Emm Clark is an avian ecologist with Sageland Collaborative, a Salt Lake City-based NGO that provides science-based strategies for wildlife and land conservation. Emm leads the implementation of the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey across Utah, and has over 15 years of experience studying shorebirds, seabirds, and waterbirds. Prior to joining Sageland Collaborative in 2024, Emm worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sonoran Joint Venture, a regional partnership leading collaborative bird and habitat conservation in the southwest U.S. and northwest Mexico. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Conservation from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Animals and Public Policy from Tufts University. Emm is deeply dedicated to the conservation of Great Salt Lake and the many species that rely on its ongoing health.
Title: The Data Is In: What five years of counting shorebirds across the Pacific Flyway has taught us
Abstract: Beginning in August 2022, a large partnership of organizations across the Intermountain West including National Audubon Society, Sageland Collaborative and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, conducted a region-wide census of migratory shorebirds every fall and spring migration at over 200 sites across 11 states. This monumental effort, the Intermountain West Shorebird Surveys, seeks to fill a 30-year data gap and has officially wrapped up with its final survey in April 2026. Meaning, the data is in!
Join us to hear about how this new data and information has given us a better understanding of how many shorebirds cross our region, how shorebird abundance has changed in the last 30 years, which sites are most valuable to shorebirds today, and how migration is shifting with a changing water supply. We’ll take the information and apply it to how wildlife managers can prioritize sites for conservation and restoration actions—an especially important tool for Great Salt Lake which supports significant portions of the Pacific Flyway’s shorebird populations.
