The coastal refugia program was initiated in response to increasing waterfowl hunting pressure and diminishing population numbers of certain migratory game bird species on the texas coast…

The coastal refugia program was initiated in response to increasing waterfowl hunting pressure and diminishing population numbers of certain migratory game bird species on the texas coast (mid-winter waterfowl survey 1998-2022, texas parks & wildlife department, austin, texas, USA, unpublished data). Hunting pressure is widely recognized as having a substantial influence on waterfowl habitat use and distribution (madsen and FOX 1995, dooley ET AL. 2010). Several studies have demonstrated the importance of refugia (i.e., areas free from hunting pressure) to waterfowl during hunting season (dinges, ET AL. 2015, giroux and bedard 1988, evans and day 2002, madsen 1998). Refugia have been demonstrated to increase waterfowl abundance and diversity beyond the immediate refuges and, thus, have been implicated as an efficient management tool to improve conservation value and biodiversity of wetlands (madsen 1998). To date, the effectiveness of refugia has only been qualified visually and limited by human observer time and sphere of visual and auditory detection. Although these techniques (e.g., aerial surveys, ground counts) have been adequate to demonstrate the significant effects of hunting-free areas on relatively local waterfowl community diversity and abundance, a need exists to apply more quantitative metrics to the design and allocation of refugia across larger landscapes. This is especially true for populations that are limited by winter resources (FOX and madsen, 1997). Well-designed landscape-scale studies demand standardized equipment and protocols that generate repeatable and reliable data to draw ecologically relevant inferences and conclusions (pereira and cooper 2006). Audio recording units (arus) have been used in an ecological context since the 1970S and have specifically been employed in avian studies with increasing frequency in the last several years (prez-granados, ET AL. 2018, celis-murillo ET AL. 2009, shonfield and bayne 2017, prezgranados and traba 2021). Arus offer distinct advantages relative to human observers in avian surveys (table 1) especially as investigative scope expands into the scale of 'landscape' (alquezar and machado 2015, venier ET AL. 2012). The objectives of this study are to (1) establish high-quality, landscape-scale monitoring protocols for the coastal refugia program on the texas coast, (2) quantify the use of sites of refugia sites by waterfowl and wetland-reliant species, and (3) provide practical, scientifically informed recommendations for waterfowl conservation and management on the texas coast.