MAPS, MANAGEMENT, AND LANDBIRD CONSERVATION

An important objective of MAPS monitoring and research is to provide land managers with tools that help them manage the lands under their stewardship to conserve landbird species of conservation concern by maintaining or creating habitats that encourage the persisitence of healthy, long-lived, and productive populations.

IBP operates networks of MAPS stations on numerous federal lands under the stewardship of:

US Forest Service - providing long-term (1992-present) monitoring data and management decision-support tools to Pacific Northwest Region 6 wildlife biologists and other Forest Service personnel..

Department of Defense - providing long-term (1993-present) monitoring data and management decision-support tools to numerous DoD natural resource managers.

National Park Service - providing long-term (1993-present) monitoring data and analyses to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

US Fish and Wildlife Service - IBP provided long-term (1994-2008) monitoring data and management decision-support tools to Big Oaks NWR in southern Indiana (formerly Jefferson Proving Ground).

From the data collected we describe temporal and spatial patterns in the vital rates of target species, and explore relationships between these patterns and

• ecological characteristics and population trends of the target species,
• station-specific and landscape-level habitat characteristics,
• spatially explicit weather variables, and
• regional climate variation (see Climate and Birds).

Information from these patterns and relationships are then used to

• identify the causes of population change,
• formulate management actions and conservation strategies to reverse declines and maintain healthy productive populations,
• evaluate the effectiveness of management and conservation strategies
• inform land owners and conservation agencies of "best practices".

In 2008 the MAPS network numbered nearly 500 active stations (~1000 have ever operated). Since 1989 the MAPS program has received the support and endorsement of many federal agencies and conservation groups, including the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Biological Resources Division of the USGS, the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program, the National Audubon Society, and the international cooperative Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Initiative, "Partners in Flight."

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