Applying Cooperative Distributed Problem Solving Methods to Trumpeter Swan Management

We are developing a decision support system in an effort to assist biologists who are managing habitats for the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans. Swan management is a domain that is ecologically complex, and this complexity is compounded by spatial and temporal issues. We are focused on providing decision support that allows managers to develop habitat management plans for local sites while recognizing that such decisions have ramifications not only at other sites but in the flyway as a whole. Because swan management is an inherently distributed problem, our system utilizes artificial intelligence methods including cooperative distributed problem solving, blackboards, and expert systems. The system will be made available to swan managers through the world wide web, using commercially available software that provides a common gateway interface between the web server software and an inference engine. The Inherently Distributed Nature of Trumpeter Swan Management We are developing a decision support system to assist biologists with the management of the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator). The number of swans breeding in the Tri-State area where Copyright © 1999, American Association for Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming come together has declined to just a few hundred pairs. They have abandoned, to large degree, what were thought to be traditional migratory pathways. Swans, like most migratory birds in North America, travel along migration corridors that link northern breeding areas with more southern wintering grounds. National wildlife refuges such as Grays Lake, Red Rock Lakes, National Elk Refuge, and Bear River Migratory Bird Figure 1. Spatial complexity shown as hypothetical migration paths among national wildlife refuges (NWR), national parks (NP), and other sites combined with recommendations needed for management of local wetlands. Migration Paths in the Flyway