Annual assessment of nesting populations of geese on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) provides information for biologists, participants in cooperative goose management plans, and Pacific Flyway technical committees. A ground-based sampling procedure has been used since 1986 to estimate the number of total nests, active nests, and eggs for cackling geese, emperor geese, greater white-fronted geese, and spectacled eiders. Annual information on the size of the nesting population and potential number of young produced contributes long term data needed to understand goose and eider population ecology and better manage these species. The survey has been the primary method of measuring recovery status for the western population of Spectacled Eiders since its listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1993.
