Minnesota loon monitoring program

Adult with juvenile loonThe Minnesota Loon Monitoring Program (MLMP) is a long-term project of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Nongame Wildlife Program (DNR). With the generous assistance of hundreds of volunteer observers, the DNR annually gathers information about common loon numbers on more than 600 lakes distributed among six regions, or "index areas" of the state. Volunteers visit each lake for one morning during a ten-day period in early July, count the number of adult and juvenile loons seen, and report these observations to the DNR for data management and analysis. Now in its twentieth year, the MLMP provides the DNR with the ability to detect significant changes in the adult population and reproductive success of the state's common loons, and to anticipate any problems that could jeopardize the future of our state bird.

 

2012 Annual Report (488 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.

 

 

MLMP Results for 1994-2004 by Index Area:

Aitkin/Crow Wing Index Area (214 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.
Becker Index Area (210 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.

Cook/Lake Index Area (212 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.
Itasca Index Area (221 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.
Kandiyohi Index Area (211 KB)This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.
Otter Tail Index Area (208 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.

Tenth Anniversary Report - MLMP 1994 - 2003 (397 KB) This is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download it.

Results of the MLMP 1994 - 2002

An estimate of Minnesota's summer population of adult common loons (1989 study)

 

 

To volunteer, please call or email the following DNR Regional Nongame Wildlife staff to be assigned to a lake(s) in one of the listed counties: