Engagement Manager, Saline Lakes Program
National Audubon Society
Bio:
Max Malmquist is the Engagement Manager for the National Audubon Society’s Saline Lakes Program, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He works toward the Saline Lakes Program’s vision of “healthy saline lake ecosystems with reliable water supplies to sustain both birds and people.”
Max has a diverse background in community relations, project management, negotiations and environmental monitoring. He is an avid birder and wildlife photographer who enjoys sharing his passion for birds with others. Max is a voting member of the Utah Birds Records Committee, lead coordinator for the Intermountain West Shorebird Surveys, and regional editor for the state of Utah’s Christmas Bird Count Circles.
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.
