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Director's Office

Budget Process.
FY 1998 was an excellent year for our research program. Almost overshadowing our accomplishments, detailed below, however, was the stress of maintaining responsiveness as the Federal Budget Process collapsed into an Omnibus Bill at year end. Northern Prairie had specifically championed a budget increase in the Species and Habitat Protection category that would apply additional funds to studies of the grassland ecosystem. We were pleased when $1 million became available in that category in the FY 99 budget and $600,000 was transferred to Northern Prairie for additional work on grassland birds, fragmentation of grassland habitat, and the grassland ecosystem per se. This is the first recognition through the budget process in some time of the importance of grassland issues. It is certainly a confirmation of the importance placed upon this system by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, our major clients and Department of the Interior partners in the midcontinent region.

Staffing/Organizational Changes.
Several permanent staff were added to the Center this year, and two new field stations were added. Dave Mech, long the foremost wolf biologist in North America, housed within the Department of Agriculture's North Central Forest Experiment Station, in St. Paul, Minnesota, was transferred to us in an organizational realignment that became effective on the first day of FY 99. Accompanying Dave were Nancy Anderson in St. Paul and Mike Nelson stationed at the Kawishiwi Field Lab in Ely, Minnesota. Also moving into a closer relationship with us was Dave Lime, on the faculty of the Department of Forest Resources of the University of Minnesota and the remaining staff person in St. Paul of the original Cooperative Park Studies Unit. We provide partial funding for Dave's social sciences program, which is reported herein for the first time.

In Jamestown, Howard Severson joined the Maintenance staff as a Maintenance Worker and Cynthia Ochsner joined the Maintenance staff as custodian.

Term employees remain an important part of our staff. Added this year were Jill Dechant to work on the Grassland Ecosystem Initiative, Becky Mickelson and Tom Buhl to assist the Northern Plains Ecology Section on canid studies and the Center Nest File, respectively, and Keith Grabner to work with the Central Plains/Ozark Plateau Section in Columbia, Missouri on Inventory and Monitoring studies.

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

Visitors/Special Events.
Dave Lystrom, USGS Central Regional Hydrologist, and Jill Bauer and Larry Volkening from USGS Central Region Office of Program Support visited the Center this year, as did Trudy Harlow, Chief, Public Affairs for USGS; Pam Malam, USGS Chief of Staff; Tim West, USGS Chief of Legislative Affairs; Chip Markell, Office of Legislative Counsel to the Secretary of the Interior; and Olivia Ferriter, Chief, Legislative Affairs, Biological Resources Division. The Center held coordinating meetings with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Jamestown and with the National Park Service in Omaha, Nebraska. Center staff made presentations at a North Dakota-South Dakota National Wildlife Refuge Meeting in Bismarck, and the Center Director held several meetings with Anne Carlsen Center for Children staff to facilitate development of a cooperative education program for their students, using Northern Prairie facilities.

Transition.
Long-time Center Employee Ray Greenwood retired this year, with plans for woodworking and enjoying the prairie apparently foremost.

Center Director Kirby was a speaker this June at the dedication of the Leo Kirsch Memorial on the Strand Waterfowl Production Area in Stutsman County, North Dakota. Leo, a long-time Center employee stationed at the Woodworth Field Station, was an originator of many currently embraced management practices for grassland systems, such as controlled burning. His influence upon others, and his contributions to wildlife and wildlands management were memorialized through a number of speeches and dedication of a plaque at the Waterfowl Production Area.

Emeritus Program.
We initiated the Center's Emeritus Program in May, 1997. The first year's goal, to contact possible participants and to initially communicate with them, was successful. We were gratified to hear positively from retired staff from the Center proper, the FWS, Canadian Wildlife Service, several State Fish and Game Agencies, and several persons now working for non-government organizations. Our original intent, which was to incorporate the opinions of emeritus staff in some long-range planning efforts, received a setback in the confusion of this year's budget process, but will begin in earnest with calendar year 1999 (see "Working Group" report, below).

The Center continues its support of emeritus staff member Forrest Lee, who is actively participating in Arctic Goose recovery programs. Arnie Kruse, Hal Kantrud, and John Lokemoen are regular visitors. Long-time Center supporters ex-Regional Director (FWS, Region 3) Jim Gritman and first Northern Prairie Director Harvey Nelson visited this year as well.

Center Working Groups.
Six Working Groups were established this year: Waterfowl Ecology, Wetland Ecology, Fire Ecology, Nongame Bird Ecology, Predator Ecology, and Exotic Plant Ecology. Center and non-Center participants have been identified; the Groups are now working toward identifying research priorities in the area of interest. The purpose is to augment the new National Bureau Information Needs Process and the original Regional Bureau Information Needs Process by identifying current and future research needs that Northern Prairie can address through panels of experts, and to identify them with sufficient justification to permit rapid development of both budget initiatives and study plan proposals. These efforts will begin developing documents for review in January.

Facilities Management

Things returned more or less to normal vis-a-vis the James River following floods of the previous years. This permitted us to turn attention to the Center's prairie management program though use of prescribed fire. Twenty-six whole or partial staff days were used to accomplish burns on six occasions by fire bosses Wes Newton and Dave Mushet. An extensive infestation of leafy spurge on native grasslands on the Center grounds is yielding to a program of biological control and judicious use of herbicides, and native plants are once again reappearing in what was formerly a leafy spurge monotype.

On the Center grounds, we completed the interior of our new laboratory/dormitory building, which will be used to house visiting scientists and volunteers, paved two parking lots and the road to the Riverside buildings, and initiated work to expand the library with a 36' x 44' addition that will allow consolidation of library holdings, storage for central records, and development of useful space for staff to read and review the literature.

We located additional snow removal equipment through surplus, and now own two large front-end loaders capable of handling any drift or making any dike against floods.

We have continued a series of effective efforts to increase quality of the working environment by adding carpeting to all offices, purchasing ergonometric furniture, and more finely tuning the heating and air conditioning systems. A year-long effort to save electricity has paid dividends, as has replacement of drafty and ill-fitting doors and windows. Several furnaces have also been converted to propane.

In the next fiscal year, we look forward to completion of the library, consolidation of records and historical data, replacement of the automotive hoist in the shop with a new, safer model, and replacement of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems on the Riverside campus.