Idaho

Expand avian monitoring program to the Snake River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). This will enable TRLT to provide ecological monitoring feedback and inform stewardship of existing protecting lands and guide future acquisitions. It will also provide a qualitative measure to major funding partners to assure continued support for future acquisitions. The Snake River ACEC is an Idaho Important Bird Area. Therefore monitoring will contribute to goals recognized in the Idaho Bird Inventory and Survey (IBIS) program administered by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Monitoring is consistant with the Idaho Partners in Flight Continently Signifigant Species list in order to ensure future important bird conservation in Idaho.

Volunteers

TRLT can utilize volunteers who have experince identifing birds or recording survey data.

Primary motivations:

Conservation Mission

Primary goals:

The ultimate long-term goal of the project is to develop a tool that aids significantly in the preservation/restoration of the most crucial bird habitats in the southwest portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This tool will provide key feedback for ongoing biodiversity conservation including conservation planning, acquisitions, and long-term stewardship and management of protected lands.

Progress:

A key challenge will be obtaining access in a landscape where the ownership is a mosaic of public and private lands. BLM is a partner in avian monitoring and have approved monitoring of BLM lands in the ACEC. They are also facilitating access into remote areas by jet boat. Many other lands are protected by the Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund, who will also facilitate access. Of all these organizations, TRLT is the only regional organization and has a well established local landowner network, even on unprotected lands. Therefore, broad access for avian monitoring within the ACEC is feasible.
Ecological monitoring feedback is an integral component of fine-scale conservation planning in Teton Basin. This information currently allows us to prioritize acquisitions and restoration efforts. Expanding monitoring to the two other geographic focal areas will increase the strategic performance of conservation in those areas.

Ecological monitoring, more than any other aspect of our biodiversity conservation program, directly affects the development of terms in a conservation easement. When a TRLT land protection specialist begins crafting a conservation easement, they typically consult with staff biologists who are familiar with important resources in the area. TRLT biologists will also be the principal staff conducting ecological monitoring activities. Therefore, ecological monitoring feedback will directly inform conservation easement terms to best protect a property’s priority natural elements.

TRLT has a proven record of protecting key habitats and sensitive wildlife species on private lands with multiple uses such as agriculture and recreation. The primary tool that facilitates good conservation on lands with multiple uses is solid information about a property’s important resources. Reliable, current information gives TRLT leverage to work with a landowner on terms that usually allow them to maintain practices like agriculture and family recreation, while providing easement terms that are enforceable and protect key habitats/species. On several Teton Basin easement projects we have required that landowners alter agricultural practices, limit recreational activities temporally or spatially and/or commit to habitat restoration so that acquisition grant guidelines are met and key natural elements are actually protected. The basis for these requirements is an understanding of the areas key habitats and species through conservation planning informed by ecological monitoring. Ecological monitoring in the Snake River ACEC will further empower our efforts to better protect multiple use private properties within this landscape.

Our short-term goals are to establish point count clusters in key narrowleaf cottonwood habitats along the South Fork Snake River and collect two year’s worth of baseline data. Data collection will include qualitative habitat data.

Progress:

Starting in winter 2008, we will establish monitoring routes along the South Fork in consultation with Victoria Saab, Research Biologist with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station in Bozeman, Montana. Victoria has completed bird research along the South Fork and will advise on route selection and survey methods for birds and habitat. Monica Zimmerman of the BLM will provide boat access to survey crews in the remote sections of the South Fork. Initial surveys will be completed in June 2008 and 2009.

Data will be managed in an Access database; and data and data summaries will be shared with partners via a brief annual report. TRLT will incorporate these projects into our comprehensive bird monitoring program along with existing efforts in Teton Basin. TRLT will develop a plan that identifies long-term monitoring timing for all efforts within the three IBAS.

Consistent with plans:

Land Trust Strategic Conservation Plan

Nature Conservancy Ecoregional Plan

State Wildlife Action Plan

Conservation Plan

Habitat Conservation Plan

Targeted habitats:

• Forests and Woodlands
  • Mixed Hardwoods and Conifer
• Shrublands and Grasslands
  • Alpine and Subalpine Habitats (Meadows, Parklands and Shrublands)
• Wetlands and Riparian Habitats
  • Forested or Shrub Wetlands and Swamps
  • Lowland Riparian Forests and Shrublands

Targeted species:

• Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus
• Brewer's Sparrow Spizella breweri
• Red-naped Sapsucker Sphyrapicus nuchalis
• Dusky Flycatcher Empidonax oberholseri
• Mountain Bluebird Sialia currucoides
• Green-tailed Towhee Pipilo chlorurus
• Calliope Hummingbird Stellula calliope

Is the success of this project's actions being monitored?   No/Unknown