Date: 9/2/26 2:55 pm From: Kevin Krajcir <kjkrajcir...> Subject: September 2026 ASCA Presentation - Dr. Maureen McClung - Lake Conway Renovation Project
Good afternoon!
Please join the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas (ASCA) on Thursday September 10th at 7 PM to hear Dr. Maureen McClung talk about her research into how the Lake Conway Renovation Project impacts bird communities that use the lake's habitats. Dr. McClung is a Professor of Biology and Chair of Environmental Studies at Hendrix College in Conway.
The Lake Conway Renovation Project near Mayflower, Arkansas, is a five-year initiative aimed at rebuilding the dam at Palarm Creek, improving recreational opportunities, and reducing sediment in the lakebed. The project requires draining much of the lake as the dam is rebuilt and allowing the growth of vegetation to break down much of the sediment in the lakebed. This change in habitat provides an opportunity to study how the project impacts the surrounding bird community, especially since the area has hosted several eBird hotspots prior to the onset of the lake drain. In spring 2026, she tasked her Field Ornithology course with designing a protocol for using eBird data to examine how the birds fare during and after the renovation project. In this talk, she will share the approach the class designed and some preliminary findings from 2020 through 2024, as well as advertise how the birding community can help contribute to this community-science driven effort. They need your help for this project to be successful, and all that's needed is for birders to do what they do best!
Dr. Maureen McClung is a Professor of Biology and Chair of Environmental Studies at Hendrix College in Conway where she teaches classes in ornithology, conservation biology, and animal behavior. She also enjoys doing research with students employing tools like game cameras and bird banding to study interactions between wildlife and humans. She grew up in Eureka Springs and attended college at Hendrix before earning her MSc at UNC-Chapel Hill studying tamarins in Peru and her PhD at the UA-Fayetteville studying songbirds in the Ozarks. She is married to Travis, a video producer, and has two sons, Felix and Harry, who play the trombone and piano, respectively. The jury is still out on whether they will love nature as much as mom, but she has her fingers crossed.
