Kelly Faller
Ecology, Restoration, Conservation
News:
I was honored to be the featured speaker at the March 2025 meeting of the Delaware Ornithological Society. Nearly 80 birders attended the talk, where I shared how acoustic monitoring can be used to track bird populations and support conservation efforts in salt marshes. It was an exciting opportunity to connect with passionate birders from across the state and discuss the potential of sound as a tool for understanding and protecting our avian communities.
I attended the Spring 2025 AERS Conference in Lewes, DE and presented a poster titled “Listening to Change: Acoustic Monitoring as a Tool for Salt Marsh Restoration.” This poster highlighted my graduate research using passive acoustic monitoring to track changes in marsh condition and faunal communities. It was my first time presenting as a student after years of attending AERS as a professional, making the experience both exciting and full circle.
I co-presented a talk at the February 2025 Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) Summit titled “The New Jersey Tidal Wetland Monitoring Network: Background, Trends, Management Implications, & Data Availability.” Alongside colleagues from the NJ Tidal Wetland Monitoring Network, we shared the latest findings on salt marsh accretion trends across New Jersey. Our presentation compared local rates of sea level rise with marsh accretion across regions and highlighted emerging data gaps and future directions for the network. It was a great opportunity to showcase collaborative science that supports coastal resilience planning.
I received an equipment grant from Wildlife Acoustics in their 1st Quarter 2023 cycle for 6 Song Meter Mini acoustic detectors to study soundscape changes in restored salt marshes along the Delaware bay.
You can read more about it here.
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I attended the spring 2023 AERS conference in Long Branch, NJ and the PDE Summit in Atlantic City, NJ to present a poster titled “Evaluating change in marsh condition pre and post-restoration in two National Wildlife Refuges along the Delaware Bay”. I highlighted my work conducting marsh surveys to understand how restoration has influenced the marsh at two USFWS Wildlife Refuges.
As of June 2022, I am the Estuary Science Specialist for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. I will be working in tidal wetlands in the Delaware Bay studying how our wetlands are responding to changing climate conditions. I will also be teaming up with our restoration group to monitor living shorelines and marsh restoration projects.
