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WCW Primaries - ​Ben Sedinger, Ph.D.

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Contact Information
(715) 346-2529
ben.sedinger@uwsp.edu
Office: TNR 342 

Curriculum Vitae

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Ben Sedinger joined the WCW in July 2019 as the new Kennedy-Grohne Chair in Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation. Ben joins us from the University of Nevada - Reno, where he was a postdoctoral researcher. He advises graduate and undergraduate research focused on waterfowl. Ben is also developing and teaching a unique waterfowl ecology and management course. When Ben is not on campus, he enjoys hunting, fishing, riding his bike, playing hockey, and spending time outdoors with his wife, young daughter, and dogs.


Leadership and Service

Student Organization Leadership

  • Faculty advisor for UW-Stevens Point Student Chapter of Ducks Unlimited
  • Advisor for student TWS Wood Duck Project



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Projects and Activities

UWSP Student Chapter of Ducks Unlimited
Dr. Sedinger serves as faculty advisor for the UWSP Student Chapter of Ducks Unlimited. The group is relatively new, formally established in 2015, but is one of the fastest growing student organizations on campus and is already among the most active in the nation. DU recognizes that a vibrant and strong collegiate program is the key to a healthy future for wetlands conservation, and it will continue to place a strong emphasis on the development of what has been a very successful program.​

The Wildlife Society Wood Duck Project

​​Dr. Sedinger is the faculty advisor for the UWSP Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society's Wood Duck Project. The purpose of the project is to check the use and success of waterfowl nesting in boxes at the George W. Mead Wildlife Area. Their research takes place in the winter months of January and February and take volunteers out on outings. A typical day for the project includes checking wood duck box conditions, replacing bedding, and recording data on the status of the box (used, successful, etc...). The project has presented their research, "Selection of Nest Boxes by Cabity Nesting Waterfowl Based on Diameter at Breast Height in Mead Wildlife Area," at the Jim and Kaite Krause CNR Student Research Symposium in April 2020.​

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Graduate Students

Wood Duck Project


Emperor Goose Project


Wild Celery Project


Andrew Greenawalt

Andrew started in November 2019 and is the first graduate student on the Federigihi Graduate Assistantship. His project is focused on harvest dynamics and migration ecology of wood ducks that breen in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. Funding for this project is supported by the Upper Mississippi River Great Lakes Joint Venture.
Jordan Thompson​

Jordan arrived at UWSP in late August and started his studeies at UWSP in September 2019. His research is focused on emperor goose nest site selection and survival on the Youkon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Funding for the project is supported by the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Units Network.
Kirsten Schmidt​

Kirsten started in fall 2018 and defended her master's thesis in December 2020.n Kirsten's research is focused on examining wild celery abundance and distribution in the Upper Mississippi River.


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Courses Taught


Waterfowl Ecology and Management (WLDL 361/561)
This course is partitioned into three parts: (1) waterfowl identification and systematics, (2) waterfowl ecology, and (3) waterfowl management techniques. Peak fall migration on the Mississippi River aligns with the fall semester and on November 16, 2019 the class too a fieldtrip to the Driftless Area near La Crosse, WI to see this spectacle. We counted tens of thousands of ducks with 12 species represented. We also found sandhill cranes, and trumpeter and tundra swans. This year, the course was officially added to our list of electives that satisfy our program's 'ology' requirements.

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Intro to Fisheries, Forestry and Wildlife Resources Lab (NRES 250)
​This course introduces students to management practices used to achieve management objectives for fisheries, forestry and wildlife resources. Specifically, the course provides students with skills to: 

1) Identify the prevailing views toward, and conditions of, the North American fisheries, forestry and wildlife resources from pre-European settlement times to the present,
2) Identify key policies and legislation that has guided the management of the resources over time in addition to the reasons for their implementation,
3) Describe and/or apply sampling techniques when estimating fisheries, forestry or wildlife attributes,
4) Define the term sustainability and identify management techniques that lead to sustainability of fisheries, forestry, and wildlife resources, and
5) Evaluate the inter-related nature of managing fisheries, forestry, and wildlife resources identifying synergies and divergences therein.

Analysis of Wildlife Populations (WLDL 353/553)

This course covers the foundational models of population dymanics and demographic parameter estimation. I've found a great opportunity in this course to expose all of our undergraduate wildlife students to waterfowl ecology because waterfowl are amond the best studied wildlife species and, as such, tremendous datasets have been collected for them for use to use as examples in class.

Ecological Data Analysis (WLDL 742)

​This course focuses on the principles and techniques for ecological data analysis, emphasizing model building and hypothesis testing. Study design and traditional statistical approaches as well as information-theoretic and Bayesian approaches are covered, and multivariate statistics are introduced to students. Other topics may include resource selection functions and survival analysis.

Intro to R Programming (NRES 796)
​This is a graduate level course covering basics of using R for data management and analysis.
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Grants, Presentations, and Publications

Grants

Presentations

  • B. Sedinger, Riecke, T., Rohwer, F., Feldheim, C., Williams, P. Cross-seasonal models reveal correlations among seasonal mortality, harvest, and environmental conditions in North American mallards. North American Duck Symposium, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, August 2019.
  • B. Sedinger, Riecke, T., Sedinger, J., Rohwer, F., Feldheim, C., Williams, P. Rethinking waterfowl harvest management from a life history perspective. The Wildlife Society National meeting, Reno, NV, October 2019.
  • B. Sedinger, Riecke, T., Sedinger, J., Rohwer, F., Williams, P. Mallard mortality within and among seasons. Atlantic Flyway Winter Meeting, Portsmouth, NH, February 2020.
  • K. Schmidt, Straub, J., Sedinger, B., Winter, S. Linking long term resource monitoring vegetation data with bioenergetics needs of waterfowl to inform wildlife habitat management. The Wildlife Society Wisconsin Chapter Meeting, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, February 2020.

Publications

  • Riecke, T., B. Sedinger, P. Williams, A. Leach, J. Sedinger. 2019. Estimating correlations among demographic parameters in population models. Ecology and Evolution, 9, 13521-13531.
  • Riecke, T., T. Behnke, D. Gibson, A. Leach, B. Sedinger, P. Street, J. Sedinger. 2019. Integrated population models: bias and inference. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10, 1032-1072.
  • Sedinger, B., T. Riecke, C. Nicolai, K. Stewart. 2019. Experimental harvest regulations reveal that water availability during spring, not harvest, affects change in a waterfowl population. Ecology and Evolution, 9, 12701-12709.
  • Sedinger, B. So long Nevada, you have been good to me. Nevada Waterfowl Association Online Flyer. Summer 2019.