Funding opportunity number: L23AS00179FUNDING opportunity goals text: the blms assessment, inventory, and monitoring (aim) program represents a major government investment to characterize and…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awarded a $198,880.46 Cooperative Agreement to the Great Basin Bird Observatory, a non-profit organization, under the Department of the Interior's Wildlife Resource Management program (CFDA 15.247). The funding supports the integration of wildlife occurrence data, specifically land bird data, into BLM's Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program across 125-150 sites in the Great Basin region. Key objectives include:

1. Collecting land bird occurrence data using sound recorders and wildlife cameras at AIM monitoring sites;
2. Comparing camera/recorder data to traditional bird count data to assess species detection;
3. Developing occurrence and species distribution models using AIM-derived and GIS-based covariates;
4. Evaluating the utility of interpolated AIM data for spatial modeling; and
5. Providing recommendations to BLM on sustainably integrating land bird monitoring into the AIM program.

The 36-month project will run from July 2023 through September 2026, with the goal of expanding the applications of BLM's AIM program data to support more comprehensive wildlife management and conservation planning.

Funding opportunity number: L23AS00179FUNDING opportunity goals text: the blms assessment, inventory, and monitoring (aim) program represents a major government investment to characterize and monitor vegetation and environmental parameters across BLM-managed lands. Perhaps the largest opportunity to leverage this investment is to add a wildlife occurrence dimension to the aim protocol. Done efficiently, this could substantially expand the potential applications of aim data to support management planning, implementation, and evaluation. Bird data are typically the easiest and most cost-effective type of wildlife occurrence information to collect and they are often good indicators of broader animal community structure, health, trends, and responses. Our specific objectives are to: 1.use sound recorders and wildlife cameras to collect land bird occurrence data at 125-150 aim sites within the great basin representing a diversity of shrubland, woodland (to the extent possible), and transitional conditions. 2.collect traditional standardized bird count data using the imbcr protocol at a subset of 50 62 of these sites as a basis for analytically assessing the ability of recorders and cameras to detect occurrence on a species by species basis. 3.create occurrence models (based on aim-derived covariates) and species distribution models (from GIS-derived covariates) using recorder and camera occurrence data for at least four priority bird species as an illustration of the potential utility of this approach. 4.investigate the performance of interpolated aim covariates for developing spatially explicit species distribution models. 5.provide BLM with a strong basis for determining if and how to formally and sustainability integrate land bird monitoring into its aim program. 6.liaison with USFS and BLM to identify opportunities to integrate land bird data collected at FIA and aim sites, respectively.