Improvement of BBS Survey Design and Count Methodology in New Jersey

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OVERVIEWThe United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Migratory Bird Management intends to award a cooperative agreement with the New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) to improve surveys of landbirds in grasslands managed and not managed under the Land Incentive Program (LIP).The anticipated length of the project is a 15 month period. The FWS will consider continued funding for the project upon (a) the recipient showing progress satisfactory to the FWS toward program goals and the determination by the FWS 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 15 months.RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENTNJAS will conduct landbird surveys in grasslands managed and not managed under LIP. Surveys will cover on-road (BBS routes) and off-road habitats using a combination of multiple-covariate distance sampling and removal-based repeated-count sampling methods. Since 2004, NJAS has been conducting grassland bird surveys in New Jersey to assess the success of state and federal land incentive programs. The recipient is providing about 2:1 match funds for this project.FWS INVOLVEMENTSubstantial involvement on the part of FWS is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded by this award. In particular, FWS staff will provide guidance on survey design and count methodology. FWS will also provide training and participate in data collection and analysis to model and estimate detection probability, occupancy, abundance, and density in the surveyed area and region

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