JAMESON CHACE, a professor at Salve Regina University in the biology and biomedical sciences and cultural, environmental and global studies departments, has been elected to a two-year term as president of the Wilson Ornithological Society. He will be tasked with overseeing the organization’s strategic initiatives, including attending engagement conferences and supporting financial and mentoring support for ornithologists, as well as continuing his research and teachings on field ecology and environmental sciences.
What research studies are you conducting at Salve Regina about avian ecology? Through a National Science Foundation grant, we measured the abundance and distribution of wintering sea ducks across Narragansett Bay and Newport Neck in relation to the prey base they rely upon. We have partnered with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island in monitoring the recovering population of nesting ospreys in the state. And I have been working closely with the town of Middletown and the Aquidneck Land Trust in an ongoing eight-year study of habitat quality for migratory songbirds.
What have you learned from your research that is helpful in managing the global bird populations? Whether it is has been long-term studies of breeding warblers in northern Vermont, my studies of Bicknell’s thrush on the mountain tops of New England, creating a breeding habitat for American woodcock, restoring habitats for migratory songbirds in Middletown, measuring the distribution and changes in wintering sea duck populations in Narragansett Bay, and/or examining the role of landscape changes in the bird populations and communities in Colorado and Arizona, the most important aspect of global bird conservation is protecting large contiguous areas of habitat and managing those habitats for habitat quality.
What areas of research are the two grants that you were awarded earmarked for, and what has that funding helped you establish? At Salve Regina, we’ve been involved with a National Science Foundation Rhode Island Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grant, studying the marine response to climate change. That grant was for the sea duck response to climate change and covered five years of the grant. The second is what is called Track II, and that was a watershed quality project in cooperation with Vermont and Delaware, called NEWRNet. From that project, we secondarily established the habitat quality and habitat restoration project for migratory songbirds with the town of Middletown and the Aquidneck Land Trust.
What does it mean to you to be elected president, and what do you hope to achieve in your role at the Wilson Ornithological Society? Being president of the Wilson Ornithological Society is humbling, given the long list of past presidents, back to 1888, among whom are some of the most influential ornithologists and teacher/scholars dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists. I hope to achieve a clearer and more active role with the organization in avian conservation.
