Sampling Plan for the Marshbird Monitoring Program

Constraints & Requirements Plan must be habitat-based Sampling intensity will vary Many areas will not be accessible Habitat locations will change Consistency with plans for other groups Plan must be practical

Proposed Plan Delineate regions Identify “designated areas” in each region (they comprise the target population for the region) Describe each area Group designated areas into strata Select survey locations in each stratum Prepare sampling plans for each stratum

Bird Conservation Sub-regions

Identify Designated Areas 1984 DAs; 641 important to secretive marshbirds

Describe Each Area “Guidelines for preparing aquatic site descriptions” (PIF Symposium) Contents –Boundaries and ownership –Focal species using the site and timing of use –Location of good and fair habitat within the site –Access to the good and fair habitat and visibility –Past and current surveys –Potential survey methods –Needed pilot studies >200 descriptions done

Prepare BCS Sampling Plan ID the DAs that have any of the focal species Form strata, each of which will be surveyed Prepare sampling plans for each stratum

Example BCS has 1 NWR, 6 WMAs, an area of playa lakes, 10 small wetlands each of which is a DA, an area of low density birds. StrataDAsStrataDAs 1NWR56 wetlands 23 WMAs6the playas 33 WMAs7low density area 44 wetlands

NWI Coverage

Sampling Plans Within Strata

Guidelines for Sampling Plans Target population must be well-defined (e.g, so its size can be calculated) Can include only good habitat or not Can change between (or within) years Suggest distributing evenly (stations or clusters)

Implications for Database Design Value exists in designing the database for many different groups. Can have 5 spatial, and 4 temporal, levels, so need up to 9 (or 10) “level” sampling Need “size” and number of sub-units for each unit at each level This information must be in the database We are developing one to hold it – for regional use. I know of no others. With 10-stage sample, and variable sized units at each level, analysis will be complex using either survey sampling or mixed models.

Example of Implementation

Number of areas Number known to be important for… StateWaterfowlWaterbirdsShorebirds Arizona California Colorado Idaho Montana Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington18743 Wyoming All

StatePreparedNot prepared Proportion prepared Arizona California Colorado Idaho Montana Nevada New Mexico Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming Grand Total

Survey Aerial Water- fowl Ground- based waterbird Secretive Marshbird Migrating Shorebird Breeding Colonies All surveys Existing survey No survey at present Volunteers could conduct Volunteers could help Staff would conduct Survey would be difficult Information lacking secretive marshbird surveys at present 2.Opportunities for 73 more 3.Volunteers could do 40 of them 4.Staff would need to help or do all of 27 surveys 5.Only 6 would be difficult

Reports: IWCBM Overview, Progress Report, Aquatic Bird Survey, Terrestrial Bird Survey, Data Management System, Analytic Tools, others

Major Obstacles Getting data contributed Getting surveyors, especially for low density areas Non-Obstacles Designing sampling plans (once labor available and practical constraints are known)

Roles and Responsibilities USGS – Oversight, design, web site IWJV - Implementation –Don Paul: UT, NV, CA –Dan Casey: MT, ID, WY –Bob Vahle: NM, AZ, CO –Joe Latourette: WA –Bruce : OR WWG – Forum for decisions States, NWRs, Bd. Obs. – Conduct surveys

Next Steps Review DAs Encourage prep’n of area descriptions Hold meetings to consider which sites can be surveyed Design BCS and strata sampling plans Select survey locations in every stratum Recruit surveyors for as many as possible Finish web site & data base Work on analytic methods

Summary and Conclusions Comprehensive plan now developed I believe plan is flexible and practical enough, but independent review needed. Easy to carry out with other surveys. Need more people trying to use it, especially at the BCS level and in new habitats (e.g., coastal marshes) No databases exist to hold all the data Developing analytic methods will be non-trivial.