Project period: 3 1 24-2 28 27PROJECT title: avian associations with management in the umrs: filing knowledge gaps for habitat managementaward purpose:to assess bird responses to management across…

This federal Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) provides $234,110.53 to the National Audubon Society, Inc. to assess avian responses to forest management across the Upper Mississippi River System. The project aims to quantify the relationships between forest structure characteristics and bird species composition and abundance before and after habitat restoration and enhancement activities. Key activities include mapping priority forests, conducting breeding bird surveys, and integrating the new data into habitat suitability models to inform future forest management decisions that benefit birds. The results will be summarized in a report and disseminated to relevant stakeholders such as non-profit organizations, landowners, and state/federal agencies managing floodplain forests in the region. The project period runs from March 1, 2024 to February 28, 2027.

Project period: 3 1 24-2 28 27PROJECT title: avian associations with management in the umrs: filing knowledge gaps for habitat managementaward purpose:to assess bird responses to management across floodplain forest communities during the breeding season in the upper mississippi river system. Will use the existing army corps and fish wildlife service forest management geodatabase to place avian point count surveys that can be related to existing data on forest structure characteristics. Prioritized sites include habitat restoration and enhancement projects (pre-management, defined as not yet complete but with pending on-the-ground management, and post-management, defined as sites that have undergone restoration actions 2-5 years ago), and sites that federal agencies have prioritized for conducted planned restoration. Since forest management includes both short-term (i.e. timber stand improvements) and long-term impacts (i.e. tree planting), which can take years if not decades to complete, this project will predominately reflect more of those short-term impacts. The goal is to quantify forest structure features related to bird presence (and, where possible, density) in sites, pre and post management across the upper mississippi river system.activities to be performed: mapping priority forests using current forest inventory data across the upper mississippi river system and habitat restoration and enhancement project online site mapper to select a variety of sites at pre- or post-management stages. Surveying breeding birds to document bird species composition and abundance within priority floodplain forests. Determine bird species detection frequencies and where possible densities across pre- and post-management sites and districts. Incorporating new bird monitoring data into fine-scale bird-habitat suitability models and large-scale spatial prioritization across the upper mississippi river system using long-term resource monitoring datasets. Producing a document with models that can be used by all upper mississippi river system forest managers to understand effects of management options on forest bird species.deliverables and expected outcomes:a report that summarizes the data collected formatted towards publication in an appropriate journal. The summary will identify, if any, management actions that directly impact bird communities, as well as what management efforts would benefit focal bird species based on their associations with the surrounding forest characteristics.intended beneficiary(IES):non-governmental organizations, landowners, and state and federal agencies interested in floodplain forest management to benefit surrounding wildlife in the upper mississippi river system.subrecipient activities (if any)