Approximately 75% of Utah's avian species use riparian habitats at some time during their life cycles and at least 80% of this habitat in Utah has been lost or altered since settlement. Riparian areas now comprise less than 1% of land cover in Utah. In 1992, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources began a statewide neotropical migratory bird (NTMB) monitoring program in this critical habitat. Unlimited distance sampling methods have been implemented at over 50 riparian survey sites statewide. Products include monitoring bird species density trends and community composition in riparian habitats throughout the state. Many projects goals directly address focal species identified as Utah Partners in Flight priority species in the Utah Avian Conservation Strategy plan as well as priority habitat and avian species listed in the Utah Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Our primary study goals are 1) to assess population trends for focal avian species, 2) describe changes in vegetation over time, and 3) investigate how these two processes are related by creating bird-habitat association models.
Results/Conclusions
Recent results from population trend analyses suggest that the patterns of annual variation and regional synchrony seen in riparian-dependent species groupings, density, and other parameters may be driven by landscape-scale effects on habitat. To better understand these large scale effects, riparian-bird habitat association models are being developed using 17 years of statewide bird and vegetation data. Our model results will form the basis for the development of management guidelines that will inform riparian restoration and conservation in Utah, both at the species level (i.e. threatened and endangered species) and the community level to maximize species richness and diversity. Riparian bird-habitat models results will be presented and the framework for riparian management guidelines will be discussed.
