2020 Annual Meeting of the Nebraska Chapter of The Wildlife Society
The Nebraska Chapter of The Wildlife Society 2020 Annual Meeting is set for February 25th – 26th in Kearney, NE at the Holiday Inn Convention Center.
The keynote speaker will be Noppadol Paothong from Columbia, Missouri. He is a nature photographer with several books on grouse species and his work can be viewed at
A tentative agenda can be found at the bottom of this page.
Early registration cost is $100 for professionals and $30 for students. The two-day meeting will include oral presentations, a student poster competition, lunch, business meeting, banquet, and auction. This meeting will wrap up before lunch on Wednesday. From February 7 up to the meeting date registration will be $120 for professionals and $40 for students.
Student/Professional Workshop
On the afternoon of Wednesday the 26th we will be hosting a workshop for training for the Nebraska Bumblebee Atlas. The website for this project is
Lodging Information
Please book your room by January 31 at either of the following hotels. Blocks of rooms are being held until the end of January at a government rate, please ask for the "Wildlife Society" room block when reserving the room.
Holiday Inn: 110 S 2nd Avenue, Kearney, NE 68847 (308)237-5971
Comfort Inn, 118 3rd Avenue, Kearney, NE 68847 (308)236-3400
Agenda
Nebraska Chapter of The Wildlife Society
Holiday Inn Convention Center, Kearney, NE
25 – 26 February 2020
Telling Your Wildlife Story
24 February
1800: NETWS Board Meeting (location TBD)
25 February
1000: Late Registration and Check-In
1030: Simpler than it sounds: assessing influences on population growth of red grouse on a Scottish moor with Bayesian comparisons of alternate models. Larkin Powell.
1100: Nebraska’s Prairie Grouse: Abundance, Production and their Historical Drivers. Danielle Berger*, John P. Carroll, Larkin A. Powell, and Jeffrey J. Lusk.
1130: Identity Crisis in Wild Turkey: Genetic and Plumage Variation. Brittaney L. Buchanan*, Robert M. Zink, Hernán Vázquez-Miranda, and Christopher J. Chizinski
1200 – Lunch
1300: Telling Your Wildlife Story: Nature Photography. Chris Helzer
1345: Telling Your Wildlife Story: Wildlife Photography. Eric Fowler
1430: Telling Your Wildlife Story: Nature Writing. Gerry Steinauer
1515: NETWS Annual Business Meeting
1645: Awards
1730: Banquet
1800: Keynote Speaker: Noppadol Paothong, photographer Missouri Department of Conservation Save the Last Dance
1900: Auction and Social
26 February
0800: Experimental Duck Hunting Regulations for Nebraska and South Dakota. Mark P. Vrtiska* and Rocco Murano.
0830: Prioritization of private lands to optimize biodiversity conservation. Andrew Little.
0900: Making the Case for Undisturbed Residual Nesting. Len McDaniel.
0930: Effects of stated attribute importance on hunter satisfaction: Who gains satisfaction from waterfowl hunting? Matthew P. Gruntorad*, Jeffrey J. Lusk, Mark P. Vrtiska, and Christopher J. Chizinski.
1000: Seasonal Changes in White-tailed Deer Density and Habitat Selection Patterns in an Agricultural Dominated Landscape. Miranda C. Reinson, Andrew Little, and Dustin H. Ranglack*.
1030: Comparison of Road Counts and Circle Plots for Estimating the Abundance of American Kestrel and Red-tailed Hawk. Thomas L. Freeman*, Logan Grose, and Casey W. Schoenebeck.
1100 – 1200: Workshop for all Members: Introduction to the Nebraska Bumble Bee Atlas.
1200: Lunch (on your own?)
1300 – 1600: Becoming a Participant in the Nebraska Bumble Bee Atlas
Posters
Pattern of Fall Migration by Diurnal Birds of Prey in South Central Nebraska.
Thomas L. Freeman
Tree Use by North American Beaver in the Great Bend Region of the Platte River.
Thomas L. Freeman
Genetic confirmation and predictive antler metrics of match set cast antlers in white-tailed deer.
Zach Carter*, Brian C. Peterson, Casey W. Schoenebeck, Brandon E. Luedtke, Kim A. Carlson
Effects of Rainfall and Cover-object Size and Material on Herpetofauna Detection in South-Central Nebraska
Mikalah M. Brown and Keith Geluso
Use of soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca) by vertebrates in western Nebraska
Michael L. Rohde, Carter Kruse, and Keith Geluso
Transect survey biases and correction methods in southern Africa
Erika Swenson