Bureau of Land Management Grant: Migratory Bird Monitoring and Program Coordination

OVERVIEW

The Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming State Office, intends to award a cooperative agreement with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is an established partner through an existing cooperative agreement to provide a monitoring protocol for migratory birds, educational material and to support other activities (such as data collection, habitat use, etc) related to migratory birds.

The anticipated length of the project is a 5 year period. The BLM will consider continued funding for the project upon (a) the recipient showing progress satisfactory to the BLM toward program goals and the determination by the BLM that continuation of the program would be in the best interest of the Government or (b) the availability of funds. The total project period for this award will not exceed 60 months.

RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT

WYGFD will continue to coordinate the updating of the Wyoming Bird Conservation Plan, which contains the Monitoring Wyoming Birds Protocol, in collaboration with the BLM and other partners.
WYGFD will contract with the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (RMBO) to continue the Monitoring Wyoming Birds effort and to do the field monitoring during 2008 on established transects.
WYGFD will coordinate with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database to be the main repository for bird monitoring data from Wyoming and to enter information from the bird monitoring into the Biological and Conservation Data System.
WYGFD will coordinate with Audubon Wyoming to coordinate staff, contractors and volunteers for specific bird monitoring tasks, and to develop educational material focusing on birds.
WYGFD will coordinate the monitoring of colonial nesting bird species in the state, conduct surveys on common loons, collect data on colonial nesting waterbirds, songbirds, and raptors.
WYGFD will coordinate the activities of the Wyoming Partners In Flight (PIF) partnership, participate in regional and national PIF meetings when appropriate, and distribute PIF educational materials.

BLM INVOLVEMENT

Substantial involvement on the part for BLM is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded by this award. In particular, BLM will be responsible for providing the public lands for these projects, developing work plans for the projects and providing funding, as available. BLM, WYGFD and other partners in the Wyoming Partners In Flight (PIF) working group will coordinate on the habitat selections for monitoring based on partner contributions to this project. BLM must be consulted about any major deviation from established transects in the shrublands important to sagebrush obligate bird species. BLM, as a member of the WY PIF working group, will be part of the scientific interpretation of the collected data and will be a working partner in developing educational materials based on the data. BLM will make its resource inventory information, and other relevant information, such as maps, available to WGFD and its contractors.