Regional Population Monitoring Of The Marbled Murrelet Field And Analytical Methods

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) ranges from Alaska to California and is listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and California. Marbled murrelet recovery depends, in large part, on conservation and restoration of breeding habitat on federally managed lands. A major objective of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) is to conserve and restore nesting habitat that will sustain a viable marbled murrelet population. Under the Plan, monitoring is an essential component and is designed to help managers understand the degree to which the Plan is meeting this objective. This report describes methods used to assess the status and trend of marbled murrelet populations under the Plan.

Marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) range from Alaska to California and are federally listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as threatened in Washington, Oregon, and California (USFWS 1997). Recovery of the murrelet depends, in large part, on conservation and restoration of breeding habitat on federally managed lands. Conservation of murrelet nesting habitat was one of the major objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan (hereafter the Plan). Under the Plan, the goal was to conserve and restore nesting habitat on federally administered lands that will sustain a viable murrelet population (FEMAT 1993). Monitoring is an essential component of the Plan and is meant to help managers understand the degree to which the Plan is meeting this objective. This report describes the methods used to assess the status and trend of the marbled murrelet in the portion of its range covered by the Plan.

Provides an early warning of environmental change before irreversible loss has occurred. Monitoring is focused at 2 resource levels: individual species & specific ecosystem types. Selection of prospective indicators for the status of species or ecosystems is based on the development of conceptual models relating resource change to reliable, early warning signals of change. Ecosystems are monitored on the basis of critical structural & compositional elements that reflect the state of underlying ecological processes. Includes recommendations for staffing, funding, & establishing a long-term commitment for a large, interagency monitoring program. Includes, A Guide to Soil Sampling & Analysis on the Nat. Forests of the Inland NW U.S.Ó