 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
Tucson Audubon Society: Arizona 's Important Bird Areas Program: Sites Inventory Component Objectives: (1) Inventory and catalog all AZ sites within the SJV and IWJV by May 31, 2004; and (2) Provide a completed published Arizona IBA catalog by the end of federal fiscal year September 2004. Project Description: Tucson Audubon Society ( TAS ) is leading the Important Bird Area Program (IBA) for the state of Arizona . This program works with Audubon chapters, agency biologists, university scientists, regional non-profits, and citizens to provide a statewide inventory of sites critical to birds of conservation concern, sites where birds congregate in large numbers, or sites with an exceptional habitat type, supporting species restricted to the habitat type. Other major components of the Arizona IBA Program are an Avian Science Initiative & Citizen-Science Monitoring Program, and a priority sites Conservation Initiative. This project will allow Tucson Audubon Society to complete the inventory of Arizona IBAs and manage site information through a World Bird Data Base-Arizona Sites Catalog. The completed inventory will be used to assess priority sites for conservation and conduct species protection analysis based landscape level distribution. Agencies involved in land management, habitat, and species planning under plans such as The North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, and the Continental Partners in Flight Plan will benefit from this information. It will allow them to prioritize focal areas for conservation and research. The Sonoran Joint Venture will particularly benefit from this inventory. Site information from Arizona , including the Santa Cruz , San Pedro, Verde, Gila, and Colorado , all the major riparian habitat corridors with the JV region, along with other desert and montane habitats, will be inventoried for birds of conservation concern within identified Important Bird Areas. This information can be used for the SJV Bird Conservation Plan which, together with site information from the Intermountain Joint Venture region, will help the site inventory and prioritization planning needs for the statewide Arizona All-Bird Conservation Plan. In 2001, the AZ IBA Program formed a Scientific Review Committee of 14 biologists and experts to review site avian data. Committee members represent all major land or wildlife management agencies and are geographically representative of the state's regions. The AZ IBA Coordinator has chaired two Technical Committee meetings. From these two meetings, 16 sites have been approved as "Identified Arizona IBAs." These sites are now being entered into the World Bird Database. We anticipate another 50-75 sites need to be nominated, compiled, and cataloged. The majority of the Arizona IBA sites to be nominated, compiled, and reviewed are within the SJV region. The Arizona Important Bird Areas Program requires programmatic support from benefiting agencies and institutions to fulfill its objectives of completing this inventory. Contact: |
