Management Indicator Species Birds of Conservation Concern Focal Species Management Indicator Species Sensitive Species What the @#$&* Strategy Species Priority SPECIES Surrogate Species In a perfect world we would have one list that everyone would agree on. But we don’t live in a perfect world, agencies and organizations have different mandates and missions or different interpretations of the same or very similar mandates or missions, so we end up with lots of lists and lots of confusion Target Species Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Species Lists: At-Risk/Vulnerable Species of Greatest Conservation Need (Strategy Species) IDFG, NRCS Birds of Conservation Concern USFWS Sensitive Species USFS BLM Watch List Species ABC/Audubon Target Species TNC Ecoregional Plans You can lump all the different bird species lists into two basic types. The majority of the species list and the ones most in use and you are most familiar with are those that the emphasis is on species that are at risk or vulnerable for any number of reasons. This includes most of the lists you are familiar with. For our purposes here today I am going to call all these types of lists Priority Species lists Priority Species

Species Lists: Representative Focal OR-WA PIF Surrogate USFWS Management Indicator USFS (old) Umbrella The second type of list is based on a species representativeness of some ecological characteristic such as habitat type condition or attribute. This is what is used in the OR WA PIF plans using the term focal species. The same basic concept is what the FWS is using for a new initiative that they are calling surrogate species. For those of you with the FS you probably remember the term management Indicator species which I don’t think is in use now but it was the same idea. Another term that you may have seen used for this is umbrella species . For our purposes here today I am going to use the term focal species. Focal Species

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Birds of Conservation Concern (BCC) Uses Species Assessment Databases that score/rank species Uses Ecological Boundaries (BCRs) PIF Scores (1-5) on several factors population size & trend, threats (breeding & non), distribution, density (relative), % of pop. Set Score Thresholds for inclusion on list Allows for Adjustments (add or subtract species) with rationale/documentation (e.g., subspecies) The approach that we think works best for Priority Species is the FWS BCC list.

Thanks to Bob Altman (ABC) for sharing the original version of this talk