J. Great Lakes Res. 33 (Special Issue 3):245–252 Internat. Assoc. Great Lakes Res., 2007 Considerations for Monitoring Breeding Birds in Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands JoAnn M. Hanowski 1,* , Nicholas P. Danz 1 , Robert W. Howe 2 , Ronald R. Regal 3 , and Gerald J. Niemi 1 1 Center for Water and the Environment Natural Resources Research Institute University of Minnesota Duluth 5013 Miller Trunk Highway Duluth, Minnesota 55811-1442 2 University of Wisconsin-Green Bay 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, Wisconsin 54311 3 Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Minnesota Duluth 1117 University Drive Duluth, Minnesota 55812-3000 ABSTRACT. One goal in indicator development is to implement long-term monitoring that will track the relative condition of the indicator over time. Among the first steps in establishing a monitoring pro- gram is to develop a sampling design that adequately characterizes the indicator to be monitored as well as the cost-effectiveness of the program. We used breeding bird data collected in Lake Superior and Lake Michigan coastal wetlands (riverine, lacustrine, barrier-protected) to determine: 1) how to select individ- ual wetlands for sampling, 2) optimum number of sample points per wetland, 3) optimal daily sampling period, 4) how many times to sample, and 5) the costs associated with implementing a monitoring pro- gram for breeding bird communities of wetlands across the Great Lakes. We found that wetlands selected for sampling should represent the range of wetlands sizes available for monitoring and that the most cost-effective strategy would be to sample a maximum of three points, even in the largest wetlands. Because surveys conducted in the morning recorded a much higher (P < 0.001) number of species and individuals, we recommend that morning surveys should be conducted. Increasing number of wetlands sampled should be the first priority because sample precision is more improved at a higher cost ratio than by adding counts to the same wetland. Multiple visits to wetlands should be considered only after maximizing the number of individual wetlands visited with money available for surveys. We calculated that the average costs would be approximately 50.00 USD/year (2001 dollars) to monitor one wetland using one morning survey for breeding birds. INDEX WORDS: Wetland, birds, indicator, monitoring, design, cost. INTRODUCTION Breeding birds have long been used as indicators of environmental condition in many ecosystem types across North America (Morrison 1986, Niemi and McDonald 2004). For the past decade, bird and amphibian community metrics (species richness and * Corresponding author. E-mail: jhanowsk@nrri.umn.edu 245 numbers of individuals) have been used as indica- tors of condition of the Great Lakes, especially wet- land ecosystems (Weeber and Vallianatos 2000, Crewe and Timmermans 2005). However, com- pared with many aquatic taxa, wetland birds have not been used extensively for development of indi- cators of biotic integrity (IBIs) (DeLuca et al. 2004). Recently, two wetland bird IBIs have been