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Budget Process: Northern Prairie received an additional $300,000 at year end to assist maintenance of the Center's core capabilities in waterfowl and wetlands research and investigations of the flora of the Great Plains. These funds will be used to support hire of a new Waterfowl Biologist, a new Quantitative Plant Ecologist, and support expansion of several of our grassland/avian research projects. This additional funding was part of a larger increase in funding across all USGS Biological Research Centers for Fiscal Year 2001. This latest announcement followed confirmation that the $600,000 increment received in Fiscal year 1999 for biological research in the Great Plains was a permanent addition to the Center's base funding.

Staffing/Organizational Changes: Two new Term employees joined the staff this year: Anne Coyle as an ecologist with the North Dakota GAP Project and Andrew (A.J.) Klein as a computer specialist working on the web page. Abby Powell, lately of our Fayetteville, Arkansas, Project Office, transferred to the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where she will be Assistant Unit Leader.

Center organization is shown and staff are listed in Appendix I.

Visitors/Special Events: Chip Walgren and Nicole Kroetsch of Senator Byron Dorgan's staff made two visits to the Center this year to discuss water and other North Dakota issues and the Center's research program. Regional Chief Biologist Larry Ludke, USGS Regional Director Tom Casadevall, and USGS Deputy Director Kathy Clements visited the Center and participated in tours of our field program, as did several staff from the Biological Resources Division in Reston and the Regional Office in Denver. The Center provided logistical support and housing in our dormitories for staff working on botulism issues under Mike Samuel from the National Wildlife Health Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and for Chris and Tom Custer of the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, working on contaminant issues related to blackbird control.

Transition: Dave Lime, Leader of the University of Minnesota Cooperative Park Studies Unit and collaborator with Northern Prairie on Social Science issues, retired from the Department of Forest Resources in favor of furniture refinishing and travel. He will be ably replaced by Dorothy Anderson, also of the School of Forest Resources, who will continue the human dimensions collaborations we have conducted thus far.

Sadly, we report that Emeritus staff member Tom Klett died in September, 1999, in Jamestown, and Jerry Pospichal, retired Fish and Wildlife Service Flyway Biologist stationed at Northern Prairie, died in December, 1998, in Cass Lake, Minnesota. We also report that Larry Jahn, long a leader in the migratory bird and natural resources management community and a Northern Prairie Emeritus staff member, also passed away in August 2000. His seminal works in waterfowl ecology will stay with us, but his enthusiastic support of programs of which Northern Prairie is part will be sorely missed.

Mallard hen and brood

Emeritus Program: We heard from emeritus staff Milt Reeves this year—still busy on his major waterfowl text. Emeritus staff John Lokemoen, Arnie Kruse, Hal Kantrud, and Ray Greenwood were seen in the halls, as was Harvey Nelson. We continued to logistically support Forrest Lee's goose research in the Arctic, and heard regularly from him regarding his contacts in the Asian waterfowl research community. Our Canadian contributors, Hugh Boyd and Austin Reed, have both been busy with continued goose research and travel; Austin completed a monograph on hybridization between American Black Ducks and Mallards with Director Kirby this year.

Awards: Forrest Lee, Emeritus Scientist, was selected by the College of Science and Engineering of St. Cloud State University to receive their Leadership Award. Harvey Nelson, first Center Director, was selected "Outdoor News Man of the Year" by the newspaper of the same name. Doug Johnson received a Meritorious Achievement Award from the United States Department of the Interior. Dave Mech received the 2000 Eugene M. Shoemaker Distinguished Achievement Award from the U.S. Geological Survey. Congratulations to all for receiving these extremely prestigious awards.

Facilities Management

The Center continued its long-term scheme to bring 1965 architecture, utilities, and other structural components to current standards. The three residences (one at Woodworth, two at Jamestown) were redesigned for radon mitigation by installing new air handling systems including vacuum pumps and external drains. At Woodworth, an escape window was also added, new carpet was installed throughout, and new siding and shingles were added. Nine furnaces were replaced in total this year, changing that many oil-fired units to gas in an attempt to save on fuel costs. A 40' × 40' addition was constructed on the east end of the Jeep shed to permit parking more vehicles inside during winter. A 24' × 32' garden shed was constructed adjacent to the new Dormitory to store snow removal and mowing equipment for the north side of the river. All new doors and windows were added to the Riverside Complex after removing cracked foundations and re-pouring concrete. Three new doors were added to the main office building, much reducing cold drafts and increasing light. Three overhead doors with openers were added to the Machine Shed. Floor covering was added to the Riverside office area and to the Woodworth bunkhouse.

We hauled $25,000 worth (1,727 tons) of rocks this year for our rip-rap project on the banks of the James River, which continues to threaten the entire road system and the perimeter fences on the south campus. Trees were planted by the roadway on the south campus, several large rocks were moved to more aesthetically pleasing locations, and we developed a garden in front of the main office that showcases western wildflowers.

This year saw the completion of a 7-year plan (stretched to 8 because of construction delays) to increase safety, safeguard health, and augment the quality of the Center's work environment while performing quality maintenance and rehabilitation of our 1965 facility. Throughout, funds for this infrastructure work have been obtained from central accounts set aside solely for deferred maintenance problems, not the Center's research budget. The Center has thus benefited from organizational concern with maintaining quality facilities; Maintenance and Administrative staff are congratulated for their attention to daily operations and contract management for our many projects throughout the last decade of the 20th century.

In the next year, we intend to upgrade our fire equipment, add a new snowplow to the fleet, and replace an aging tractor. Major construction efforts have been completed, but we look forward to continued work on the road system, correction of deficiencies in the controls of the main office heating system, developing new methods for weed control on Center lands, and getting an edge on the James River with our rip-rap project.