Protocol implementation plan for national parks in the Pacific Northwest, North American Bat Monitoring Program for surveying summertime bat occurrence with stationary deployments of echolocation recording devices: Version 1.0
Rose S, Baumann L, Emblidge P, Lonneker J, Schmidt N, Rodhouse TJ, Ward B. 2024. Protocol implementation plan for national parks in the Pacific Northwest, North American Bat Monitoring Program for surveying summertime bat occurrence with stationary deployments of echolocation recording devices: Version 1.0. Natural Resource Report. NPS/UCBN/NRR—2024/2639. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2301735
he Northwestern Hub for Bat Population Research and Monitoring (NW Bat Hub), as part of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), developed a regional protocol (Rodriguez et al. 2019) to guide multi-agency collaborative implementation of summertime acoustic surveys to track the status and trends of bat populations. See Loeb et al. (2015) and Reichert et al. (2021) for a description of the full NABat plan including winter bat colony counting. The protocol provides guidance specifically for parks in the National Park Service (NPS) North Coast Cascades, Upper Columbia Basin, and Klamath Networks. This protocol implementation plan (PIP) outlines how the protocol will be implemented by NW Bat Hub and National Park staff within this three-network/three-state (Washington, Oregon, Idaho) region. Specific topics for NPS implementation of the protocol that require additional details beyond those outlined by Rodriguez et al. (2019) are the specific NPS requirements for data management, analysis, reporting, and a budget for NPS to contribute to long-term sustainability of the NW Bat Hub and protocol implementation. Surveys will be conducted on and adjacent to NPS lands collaboratively by NPS and NW Bat Hub staff. Roles and responsibilities for protocol implementation with be established prior to each field season depending on staff capacities and interests. This PIP is versionable and it will be updated periodically alongside updates to the protocol itself, and as other operational changes are made. The PIP serves to document why and how NPS will engage as an NABat partner in the Pacific Northwest and with the national NABat program led by US Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center (USGS-FORT), the role of summertime acoustic monitoring as a way for NPS to meet its vital signs monitoring goals for bats (Garrett et al. 2007), the stewardship of acoustic data by NW Bat Hub and USGS-FORT on behalf of NPS, and the Hub’s role as a source of coordinated conservation expertise for NPS and other regional collaborators. This PIP contains a detailed overview of how the protocol will be used in National Park units in the Pacific Northwest. It is intended for use by NPS and NW Bat Hub coordinators and team leaders, program administrators, field crew leads, and data analysts who need to be conversant in the details of the program. Standard operating procedures that detail the operational-level information can be located in the protocol narrative by Rodriguez et al. (2019).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Rose, Sara; Baumann, Laura; Emblidge, Patrick; Lonneker, Jeffrey; Schmidt, Nadja; Rodhouse, Thomas; Ward, Beth
- Date of Issue
- 2024-04
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2301735
- Units
- CIRO , CRLA , CRMO , HAFO , JODA , LARO , LEWI , MIIN , MORA , NEPE , NOCA , NRSS , OLYM , ORCA , UCBN , WHMI
- Keywords
- Bat Protocol, CRMM, echolocation recording device, Klamath Network, North American Bat Monitoring Program, North Coast and Cascades Network, Pacific Northwest, protocol implementation plan, Upper Columbia Basin Network
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Mammals