Landbird inventory for Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (2004)

Wilkerson, Robert; Siegel, Rodney

The NPS established the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) to help park units collect scientifically credible ecological resource information and to develop or improve field and analytical monitoring techniques. As a first step, 5-year inventories were initiated in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) to gather core sets of data describing park vascular plants and vertebrate resources. The North American Breeding Bird Survey suggests that landbird populations in Pacific Northwest late-seral forests appear to be in serious decline (Sauer et al. 2003), and data from the national parks are particularly important for teasing out possible causes. Species-specific density estimates for habitat usage at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (LEWI) are necessary for tracking population changes over time, or for gauging the effects of any future management actions that may alter habitat conditions. In 2004 The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) collaborated with personnel at LEWI to initiate a Park-wide inventory of landbirds. The goals of the inventory were to estimate habitat-specific density and park-wide abundance for a large suite of species, and to produce information that will assist park managers and cooperators in designing the park‟s long-term landbird monitoring program. This inventory could serve as a baseline for monitoring future ecological changes within the park, assessing the affects of future management actions on bird populations, and formulating efficient long-term bird monitoring strategies. During late May 2004, we counted 494 individual birds during 35 point counts conducted in the Park. We documented 61 bird species (including the Hermit-Townsend‟s Warbler hybrid) in the park during the brief field season. Fifty-eight of these were detected during at least one point count, while the remaining three were recorded only at times other than during point counts. We also categorized the habitat and collected location-specific variables at each of the 35 survey points. Although the original sample design included a Park-wide grid comprised of 101 point count locations, we learned at the last minute that park personnel were unable to arrange permission for us to access lands that were in the process of being transferred to park management. Unfortunately, these lands constitute the majority of the Park. We were thus unable to access 66 out of 101 sampling points.

Landbird inventory for Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (2004)

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