Final Report, Conservation of Clark’s Nutcrackers in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem: Clark’s Nutcracker Summer Use of Whitebark Pine Communities

Tomback, Diana

In 2008, Glacier National Park had obtained from IMRICO funding for a two-year study “Conservation of Clark’s Nutcrackers in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.” The objectives of this study were “(1) to determine the occurrence and distribution of Clark’s Nutcrackers in whitebark pine forests and alternative habitats in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, (2) to investigate the behavior of nutcrackers in the healthiest whitebark pine stands, and (3) to create a rigorous, tractable monitoring protocol for Clark’s Nutcrackers that can be used wherever nutcrackers are found.” This project was divided between two investigators: Kim Sullivan, Utah State University, and myself, Diana Tomback, University of Colorado Denver. Each investigator recruited and collaborated with a master’s student to work on the project. We, Dr. Diana Tomback and graduate student Jennifer Scott, were responsible for 1) determining if and how nutcrackers use whitebark pine communities, and 2) density estimates of nutcrackers in whitebark pine habitat in both Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks. We were also responsible for 3) devising a state-of- field transect-based monitoring protocol and for establishing and conducting surveys of the transects, gathering additional behavior data, and for data management and analysis. We have accomplished most of these objectives. In 2009, I spent about a month in the field in Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks with Scott, In July, I worked with Scott setting up transects, teaching forest health assessment methods, and running transects. We decided to increase the number of study areas to five, including one study area in Waterton Lakes National Park, in order to obtain a reasonable geographic distribution both east and west of the Continental Divide and north and south across the combined parks; we included only one to two transects in each area for a total of 10 transects.