Every year, conservation groups conduct surveys of birds and
other wildlife. But there’s no standardized way to count the
species. WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports some scientists say a
uniform method would make the data more useful. Conservation
Biologist Christopher Elphick at the University of Connecticut
says if he were a businessman he’d want a reliable inventory of
what he has to sell --- and where it is. He says conservation
groups need the same kind of information about natural resources
in Connecticut. “We have a very general sense of what species
are out there, but we don’t have very good information on
exactly where they are and exactly how much there is.” Elphick
says we’d have better numbers if we used a standard way to count
species. For instance if one person spends an hour surveying
birds and another spends three hours then comparing the survey
results is like comparing apples to oranges. “If everyone was
doing it the same way then you’d have data that could be
compared across different locations an