Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
4333 BROOKLYN AVE NE
SEATTLE,WA 98195
Performing Department
Wildlife Science
Non Technical Summary
We will use available aerial photographs, on-the-ground global positioning and current, standard plant and animals keys at the John Day/ Willow Creek Project to complete a comprehensive inventory of most, if not all terrestrial species of flora and fauna on 13,600 acres of project lands and delineate ecological communities. Our inventory will identify the presence, locations, coverage and habitat quality of terrestrial state and federal threatened and endangered species and invasive, nuisance and noxious species within delineated ecological communities. We will enter relevant data into a GIS database and generate a series of maps to show a detailed, scaled overview of ecological communities, species habitats, and general habitat conditions.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
We will complete a comprehensive inventory of flora and fauna and delineate the ecological communities across the John Day/ Willow Creek Project area (referred to as Project lands hereafter), as defined by the Army Corps of Engineers. Our inventory will identify the presence, locations, coverage and habitat quality of terrestrial state and federal threatened and endangered species and invasive, nuisance and noxious species within delineated ecological communities. We will enter relevant data into a GIS database and generate a series of maps to show a detailed, scaled overview of ecological communities, species habitats, and general habitat conditions.We will accomplish the following objectives:Apply scientifically rigorous surveys to inventory and identify terrestrial animal and plant species and their habitats. This inventory will include native and non-native and invasive, threatened and endangered, noxious and nuisance plants and wildlife on 13,600 acres of Project lands;Delineate and identify dominant ecological communities, including abiotic components on the Project lands;Assess the status, health, and viability of resident wildlife, plant populations, and their habitats, including special status species, as well as biological diversity, and environmental health of ecological communities on the Project lands;Provide qualitative and quantitative information about the identity, location, and abundance of state and federal classified invasive and noxious species within dominant ecological communities;Develop an integrated pest management plan.
Project Methods
Vegetation Assessment: Objective 1 A comprehensive inventory of all vascular plants will be compiled for Project lands. Using field surveys, we will develop species lists, recording observations of all native and non-native taxa. We will prepare a report describing all rare species occurrences, and will ensure that the location and descriptive attributes for each occurrence are compiled in a GIS database.Objective 2 We will identify, delineate, and map dominant ecological communities on the Project lands. We will also determine the criteria used to define the appropriate ecological communities that will comprise the mapping units across the Project lands. The resulting map will reflect dominant vegetation present on the two study sites.Objective 3 The status, health, and viability of all rare and special status species will be assessed by documenting the size and reproductive status of populations, the number and distributions of populations, and noting the nature, imminence, and severity of any threats that are likely to affect their viability over the short and long term.Objective 4 The occurrence of invasive noxious weeds will be documented throughout the project area by the vegetation team. Initial surveys will identify a list of observed and potential species, which will be verified and updated by detailed searches and evaluation. All occurrences will be mapped either as point locations or polygons, in the case of large infestations. Additional data will be recorded for each record to characterize the nature and size of the occurrence. We will prepare a summary of invasive species occurrences as part of the Integrated Pest Management plan (Objective 5), and will ensure that these data are compiled in a GIS database that will provide spatially-explicit maps of weed infestations.Objective 5 Based on the invasive species information gathered in Objective 4, we will develop an integrated pest management (IPM) plan. This plan will provide a prioritized approach for controlling invasive species as mandated by state and federal noxious weed control programs, or are otherwise high priorities for control based on our ecological assessments of the natural communities and rare species found in the project area.Wildlife Assessment: We will implement a faunal survey on the Project lands that is aimed at achieving the five aforementioned objectives over the period of service (09/28/2016 - 09/30/2017). Generally, we will employ a suite of sampling approaches and protocols that spatially compliment the plant and habitat survey and produce robust occupancy, abundance, and diversity estimates for both native and exotic mammals, birds, and herpetofauna. Our goal is that these estimates serve as an inventory baseline, identify the presence of threatened and endangered taxa, facilitate continued monitoring, and contribute to an integrated wildlife and pest management strategy for the Project lands.