Using Standardized Bird Monitoring to Assess and Enhance Bird Conservation Benefits from Meadow Restoration Efforts in the Sierra Nevada

Montane meadows provide important breeding and foraging habitat to many bird species in the Sierra Nevada. Unfortunately, bird habitat at many meadows in the region has been degraded by historic management practices that altered meadow hydrology and/or changed the characteristics of meadow plant communities. The good news is that both public and private land managers are realizing that well-functioning hydrologic processes may yield multiple benefits, including:

-increased water storage capacity
-improved water quality
-downstream flood attenuation
-enhanced value of habitat for wildlife

Throughout the Sierra Nevada, many efforts to restore or enhance meadow hydrology and habitats are underway or in planning, and many of those efforts may provide win-win solutions that simultaneously improve water resource management for humans and enhance wildlife habitats.

The Institute for Bird Populations is teaming with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on a project aimed at documenting and enhancing the benefits of Sierra Nevada meadow restoration on meadow birds.

Our project has two major components:

1. Develop a standardized bird survey protocol for birds at Sierra Meadows

The first component of our project is to develop a standardized, comprehensive protocol for surveying birds at Sierra Nevada meadows—a protocol that addresses study design, observer training, data collection, data management, and data analysis. The wide adoption of a standardized, scientifically vetted bird monitoring protocol for Sierra meadows will allow data to be aggregated and compared between sites and over time, and allow land managers and project designers to determine which kinds of restoration measures are most effective at delivering high-quality meadow habitat that is actually adopted by sensitive bird species. Prior to finalizing the protocol we will seek peer review from other researchers and land managers in the Sierra. We will post the peer-reviewed protocol on our website for anyone who wishes to use it.

2. Initiate pre-restoration baseline bird monitoring at future restoration sites in 2010

The second component of our project will be to initiate pre-restoration bird monitoring at potential or planned restoration sites during the 2010 breeding season, in order to set the stage for assessing the benefits of meadow restoration activities in the future. Our surveys will require close coordination with landowners, land managers, and/or any other entities or partnerships involved in the individual restoration activities--we are still identifying sites and partners for the 2010 breeding season. We will provide partners with copies of survey data and a Final Report. We invite anyone planning meadow restoration activities in the Sierra Nevada region within the next few years to contact IBP Project Manager Helen Loffland for more information, and to discuss whether the site might be a good candidate for our summer 2010 bird surveys.

List of project partners to date
-The Institute for Bird Populations
-National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
-USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region
-Yosemite National Park
-Pit River Conservation District
More to come...

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