In the fall of 2006, I was on sabbatical, working on a project with the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (USGS) in Bozeman, Montana, identifying trumpeter swan habitat on the ground and delineating current and potential habitat via remote image analysis.  I also continued my work on an educational program of conservation-related music.  For more on that sabbatical work, click here.  Now back at EKU, I will continue the swan and conservation music work in 2007 and beyond.  Currently, I am advising graduate student Lucas Hill, who is working with NRCS biologist Ray Toor, on a wetland functional analysis project, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of various wetland restoration methods that have been used by state, federal, and private groups over the last decade.  I also worked with undergraduate students in 2006 to evaluate the effectiveness of different trapping methods on our local mink populations, and to document presence of mink along local streams.  I plan to follow up on recently completed projects with publications, and to submit a proposal or two for future funding.  Emily (Horton) Dunbar completed her MS thesis on the status and habitat use of wild hogs in  Kentucky in May 2005.   We worked with Jon Gassett and Jonathan Day (Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources) to document the state's hog populations, including a survey of McCreary County hunters and landowners, collection of a few dead animals for necropsy, collection and analysis of habitat data, and remote photography efforts.  I also helped honors student Masa Radakovic with her senior thesis on the impacts of global warming on Kentucky ecosystems; she graduated in May as well. Heather Brace completed a graduate project in 2003 to evaluate the status and movements of red and gray foxes in a suburban wildlife sanctuary in Howard County Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C.  Also completing the MS degree in 2003 was Rebecca Stults.  Her project involved swamp rabbit ecology along Mayfield Creek in western Kentucky.  Matt Pieron completed his thesis on the analysis of mallard and black duck banding data from Ontario, and Scott Harp completed his MS with an evaluation of the private lands wildlife habitat management program in Kentucky (also funded by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife).   Also in 2003, I was called on by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to participate in a Klamath Basin Waterbird Management Workshop, where I presented my earlier sabbatical work dealing with the impact of changing agricultural regimes on fall-migrating and wintering waterfowl in the Klamath Basin of Northern California and southern Oregon.   That work was conducted under contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address a critical and immediate problem due to impending changes in water availability as a result of demands from fisheries, endangered species, and from agriculture.