1. Conserving Birds & Their Habitats Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative Monitoring Grid Rob Sparks and David Hanni

2. Conserving birds and their habitats. Presentation Outline Current RMBO monitoring programs GPLCC standardized grid GPLCC landbird monitoring strata Conservation products

3. Conserving birds and their habitats. Guidelines for Avian Monitoring Goal 1: Integrate monitoring into bird management and conservation practices. Goal 2: Coordinate monitoring programs among organizations and integrate them across spatial scales. Goal 3: Increase the value of monitoring information by improving statistical design. Goal 4: Maintain bird population monitoring data in modern data management systems. http://www.nabci-us.org/aboutnabci/monitoringreportfinal0307.pdf

4. Conserving birds and their habitats. Our Objectives 1)Provide a design framework to integrate bird monitoring efforts 2)Precisely estimate distribution, density, site occupancy, population trends and species richness 3)Provide habitat association data relevant to landscape changes 4)Maintain a high-quality database, accessible online 5)Create decision support tools to help guide conservation efforts

5. Conserving birds and their habitats. Bird Conservation Regions

6. Conserving birds and their habitats. Current Monitoring Programs All lands in BCR 17 All lands in CO, WY and MT Portions of 9 additional states All BLM lands in: CO, WY, MT, ND, SD All USFS lands in Regions 1 & 2 (CO, WY, NE, KS, SD, ND, ID, MT) 3 National Forests in Region 3 (Kaibab, Coconino, Prescott)

7. Conserving birds and their habitats. 2010 Landbird Monitoring

8. Conserving birds and their habitats.  Colorado Division of Wildlife  Wyoming Game and Fish Department  Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks  South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks  USFS: 27 National Forests, 9 National Grasslands, 4 regions, 12 states  BLM in 5 states  National Park Service …(continued) Current Partnerships

9. Conserving birds and their habitats.  Northern Great Plains Joint Venture  Audubon Wyoming  Wyoming Natural Diversity Database  Montana Natural Heritage Program  Idaho Bird Observatory  Avian Science Center  Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative Current Partnerships (cont.)

10. Conserving birds and their habitats. Sampling Design and Methods Sampling Frame Sampling Units Sample Selection Sample Allocation (effort) Sampling Methods

11. Conserving birds and their habitats. Sampling Frame: BCRs

12. Conserving birds and their habitats. Sampling Units 1 km 2 cell Step 1: Overlay grid on sampling frame Step 2: Attribute each cell with pertinent data (unique ID, spatial location, land ownership, elevation, soil type, …)

13. Conserving birds and their habitats. Sample Selection Spatially Balanced: Generalized Random Tessellation Stratification (GRTS)  Ensures a spatially balanced distribution of samples within each stratum  ~ Random  Analyses can incorporate spatial information in estimation of sampling variance

14. Conserving birds and their habitats. Minimum of 2 samples required/stratum Recommend 10 Determined by funding partners May vary annually Sample Allocation

15. Conserving birds and their habitats. Example: Base Sample in BCR 18

16. Conserving birds and their habitats. Additional Samples in Colorado

17. Conserving birds and their habitats. Additional Samples - Comanche NG

18. Conserving birds and their habitats. Sampling methods 16 points per cell  250 m spacing  125 m from edge 6 minute point count  1 minute intervals Record distance to each bird seen or heard Record species and sex for each observation

19. Conserving birds and their habitats. Questions? Jeff Jones

20. Conserving birds and their habitats. GPLCC Monitoring Grid Objectives Create a standardized monitoring grid USNG or MGRS Develop long term bird monitoring strata for GPLCC Grid attributes Select samples Spatially balanced sampling –GRTS function in R

21. Conserving birds and their habitats. Great Plains LCC Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) Science-based Partnerships Help guide and coordinate conservation efforts at regional levels Great Plains LCC consists of BCRs 18 & 19

22. Conserving birds and their habitats. GPLCC Monitoring Grid The need for a monitoring framework at the regional level Spatial context for statistical inferences and predictions USNG Monitoring Grid Biologists can use grid to monitor a variety of taxa at multiple scales Key grid elements: spatial extent, datum/projection, scalability, standards

23. Conserving birds and their habitats. US National Grid (USNG) USNG identified as a potential standard for monitoring populations at regional levels Developed by FGDC for emergency response coordination 1-km square grid cells Contains key elements for a proper monitoring grid (national coverage, commonly used datum/projection, scalable)

24. Conserving birds and their habitats. USNG (cont.) Based on the NAD 83 geographic coordinate system Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection Similar to the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) MGRS uses WGS 84 datum Covers the entire United States MGRS worldwide coverage

25. Conserving birds and their habitats. USNG Scalability The unique addressing system for the USNG allows scalability from 100,000-km square to 1-m square. Labeling system –UTM Zone Designation. –100,000-meter square designation –USNG: unique grid coordinates for a 1-km square Eastings/Northings Each 1-kilometer square grid cell has a spatial address (e.g. 13TGF3437) –Grid zone designator (13T) –100,000-meter square identification (GF) –Unique grid coordinates (3437)/Eastings (34), Northings (37)

26. Conserving birds and their habitats. USNG Issues Zipper effect: Cells along UTM zone junctions are smaller than 1-km square. Only affects 0.33% of grid cells in GPLCC Causes sampling problems; may bias estimates Many possible solutions –Remove zipper cells –Merge zipper cells to adjacent cells –Overlap zone junction cells

27. Conserving birds and their habitats. Zipper Effect

28. Conserving birds and their habitats. Zipper Effect Solution: Merge Cells Merged cells smaller than 0.95-km square into their adjacent cells Equal probability of being selected No gaps or overlap If selected for sampling, a 1- km square will be randomly placed inside cell

29. Conserving birds and their habitats. Grid Attribution We used GIS to attribute GPLCC grid NRCS Soils NRCS Major Land Resource Areas (ecoregions) Federally owned or managed lands National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) Strahler order USFS proclaimed boundaries Nebraska: Biologically Unique Landscapes Priority Conservation Areas

30. Conserving birds and their habitats. Final Product ArcGIS geodatabase Grid datasets established by UTM zone, State, and BCR –Location of cell centroid Naming convention: “STATE_USNG_UTMxx_BCRxx” Example: CO_USNG_UTM13_BCR18

31. Conserving birds and their habitats. Benefits of a standardized grid Same starting point Spatial continuity across different projects Decrease project costs, necessary labor, and duplicate sampling efforts No need to create multiple grids for multiple projects

32. Conserving birds and their habitats. Benefits (Cont.) Should improve partnership coordination at the landscape and local level to accomplish shared conservation goals (ABC and NBII) Can also be used for other monitoring programs FLAM surveys across western US Bat surveys USFS Grouse Surveys CDOW

33. Conserving birds and their habitats. Stratification Development Stratification should be defined by areas to which we want to make inferences Strata are based on fixed attributes Federal/state land ownership Elevation, latitude, soil type, ecoregion All vegetation types available for sampling Flexible: Each state within the BCR and each BCR within a state can be stratified differently (depending on local needs)

34. Conserving birds and their habitats. GPLCC Stratification Strata based on GIS layers: NRCS Ecoregions Soils Federal Land Ownership Rivers (Strahler order) Biologically Unique Landscapes (NE) Priority Conservation Areas

35. Conserving birds and their habitats. NE BCR 18 Strata Pine Ridge BUL Wildcat Hills BUL Niobrara River Oglala N.G Agate Fossil Beds N.M

36. Conserving birds and their habitats. NE BCR 19 Strata Rainwater Basin Loess Uplands Ecoregion Niobrara River Nebraska Sand Hills Ecoregion Rolling Plains and Breaks Ecoregion Crescent Lake, Valentine NWR

37. Conserving birds and their habitats. WY BCR 18 Strata BLM lands DOD lands All other lands

38. Conserving birds and their habitats. NM BCR 18 Strata Soils Alfisols Aridosols Entisols Inceptisols Mollisols Vertisols Rock Outcrop Rivers

39. Conserving birds and their habitats. KS BCR 18 Strata Priority Conservation Areas Central High Tableland Ecoregion Cimarron N.G Rivers

40. Conserving birds and their habitats. KS BCR 19 Strata Priority Conservation Areas Rivers All Other

41. Conserving birds and their habitats. CO BCR 18 Strata Pawnee N.G Comanche N.G DOD lands North of Platte R. Platte River Platte R. to I-70 I-70 to Arkansas R. Arkansas River South of Arkansas River

42. Conserving birds and their habitats. OK BCR 18 Strata Southern High Plains Northern Part Ecoregion (Private lands) Rita Blanca N.G. Rivers

43. Conserving birds and their habitats. OK BCR 19 Strata Black Kettle N.G. Ecoregions: North Cross Timbers Central Rolling Red Plains Southern High Plains & Breaks Central Rolling Red Prairies Wichita Mtns Rivers USFWS

44. Conserving birds and their habitats. TX BCR 18 Strata Rita Blanca N.G. Ecoregions: Southern High Plains N. Part Southern High Plains S. Part Edwards Plateau Southern Desertic Basins Rivers USFWS

45. Conserving birds and their habitats. Integrating USNG Grids USFWS lands Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge –250 meter USNG grids nesting in the 1km grids –Repeat visits –Same methods

46. Conserving birds and their habitats. Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge

47. Conserving birds and their habitats. TX BCR 19 Strata Ecoregions: Southern High Plains Breaks Central Rolling Plains Red Prairies Central Rolling Plains W. Part Edwards Plateau Rivers

48. Conserving birds and their habitats. Collaboration Shared costs among partners Handles fluctuating funding Ability to compare bird trend to habitat trend Ability to compare local to regional results Flexibility in stratification All vegetation types available for sampling Can be (is) used for other taxa Benefits of Integrated Monitoring

49. Conserving birds and their habitats. Questions? Bill Schmoker

50. Conserving birds and their habitats. Conservation products Density/Occupancy estimates BCR/State level Stratum level Habitat occupancies at multiple scales Brewer’s Sparrow Maxent modeling Grasshopper Sparrow Chestnut-collared Longspur

51. Conserving birds and their habitats. Analytical methods Estimate detection probability and density Distance sampling (Buckland et al. 2001) Removal sampling (Farnsworth et al. 2002) Estimate detection probability and occupancy rate Combined Removal and Occupancy modeling (Pavlacky et al. in press) Habitat modeling

52. Conserving birds and their habitats. Results: Density and Abundance Example: Brewer’s Sparrow DN%CVn Pawnee N.G12.22213,8013184 Comanche N.G6.7832,811718 Colorado BCR 184.92558,3683355

53. Conserving birds and their habitats. Results: Site Occupancy Example: Brewer’s Sparrow Psi%CVn Tran Pawnee N.G 0.222632 Comanche N.G 0.293612 Colorado BCR 18 0.2532815

54. Conserving birds and their habitats. Habitat occupancy at multiple scales Can large-scale monitoring inform habitat management local scales? Local scale Territory occupancy Habitat condition Habitat degradation Large scale Regional occupancy Landscape context Habitat loss and fragmentation

55. Conserving birds and their habitats. Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri) Southern Rockies / Colorado Plateau Bird Conservation Region (BCR 16) Sagebrush obligate Species of conservation concern BBS: 50% decline in 25 years

56. Conserving birds and their habitats. Predicted distribution: BCR 16 Wyoming Colorado Probability of occupancy 0.30 - 0.39 0.40 - 0.49 0.50 - 0.59 0.60 - 0.69 0.70 - 0.79 0.80 - 0.89 0.90 - 1.00

57. Conserving birds and their habitats. Large-scale regional occupancy

58. Conserving birds and their habitats. Small-scale territory occupancy

59. Conserving birds and their habitats. Small-scale territory occupancy

60. Conserving birds and their habitats. South Dakota Maximum Entropy Models

61. Conserving birds and their habitats. South Dakota Maximum Entropy Models

62. Conserving birds and their habitats. Questions? Jim Watson