The Milwaukee County Avian Migration Monitoring Partnership represents a unique connection between publishable science, education, and community involvement. Since 2006, more than 100 citizen volunteers from the Milwaukee area have contributed their time to study the quality of Milwaukee County parks as urban stopover sites for migratory birds. By establishing this network of trained citizen monitors, the Milwaukee County Avian Migration Monitoring Partnership intends to foster long-term monitoring of birds in Milwaukee County, a project that will serve as a model for other urban areas nationwide. The project is currently in its 2nd field season in its 2nd year of study.

This group of volunteers has become an incredible asset in terms of collecting stream monitoring data. They began their participation in volunteer stream monitoring with the Water Action Volunteers program in 2005 and in 2006 they began participating in the level 2 stream monitoring pilot project. They have continued their participation in 2007 with level 3 research. The group is extremely well organized, motivated, and ambitious. They are willing to partner wherever they can help to assist with management of surface water resources in their area (and beyond). They provide educational training and support throughout a multi-county area, and commit numerous hours to improving and ensuring the quality of their efforts.

Lynn Ratkowski has shown an incredible amount of dedication to the Milwaukee County Avian Migration Monitoring Partnership in Milwaukee County. Entering her 4th field season, Lynn has volunteered in more than 90% of the banding days for the project. She has made the long drive from Burlington to the east side of Milwaukee twice a week (12 weeks a year) before sunrise bringing a strong work ethic and a contagious enthusiasm. She does this in addition to her full-time work with an online learning agency and other volunteering duties (editor of the WBCI newsletter, volunteer banding with the Riveredge MAPS project). Lynn has quickly mastered the art of bird banding, (extraction, processing and sampling blood) becoming indispensable during migration fallouts and allowing project personnel a peace of mind that the project is in good hands as we train new volunteers. Lynn truly embodies the spirit of a dedicated citizen volunteer.

Since September of 2005, John and Cindy Anderson have submitted 393 Odonata records from 16 counties to the Wisconsin Odonata database. Of these, 184 were new county records! They have traveled widely at their own expense to survey areas of southern Wisconsin where Odonata communities were not well known. The work they have done has added very significantly to knowledge of statewide distributions and critical habitats for many species of Wisconsin Odonata. John and Cindy Anderson exemplify the most desirable qualities of citizen monitors, including a deep commitment to their work, a very positive attitude, and strong interest in resource protection.

Matt Berg is a biology teacher at Grantsburg High School and has been leading his students in monitoring activities for many years. Just in the past four years since the citizen monitoring network has started, he and his students have accomplished quiet a bit! Through 2004 and 2006, students from Grantsburg High quantitatively analyzed the mussel communities in northwestern Wisconsin. The students have also been involved with monitoring dragonfly communities on the St. Croix River and its Wisconsin Tributaries.

In the twentieth (and now 21st) century, few have done more to advance citizen-based monitoring efforts in the field of Wisconsin ornithology than Noel Cutright. He has tirelessly promoted and participated in the Federal Breeding Bird Survey for 30+ years. This culminated in a Quad 30 campaign in which he raised $50,000 for Important Bird Areas by running 33 consecutive Breading Bird Survey routes in 33 days! Noel has participated and organized hundreds of Christmas Bird Counts over the years and has recently acted as the Wisconsin coordinator for the Great Backyard Bird Count. More recently he devoted countless hours of his "free time" to organizing a five year breeding bird atlas effort for Wisconsin and eventually serving as an editor for the 600 page book! The respect for Noel and his popularity within the birding community and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology (WSO) have allowed him to act as a catalyst for many of the important citizen-based monitoring efforts across the state for the last 30 years.

Through his work with We Energies. WSO, or the Riveredge Bird Club, Noel has a long history of putting monitoring results to use through conservation action. Whether it's Osprey platforms, Peregrine Falcon nest boxes, bluebird trails, State Natural Areas or important reserves in Belize, Noel has been active in a number of important conservation campaigns. More recently Noel was instrumental in helping to form the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative (WBCI), which is looked to as a leader in state-based coordinated bird conservation efforts