Project Description
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) coordinates an annual region-wide multi-agency marsh bird survey effort throughout the Lower Colorado River valley region (Arizona, California, Nevada, Sonora, and Baja California). This survey effort has occurred annually since 1978 and provides the data needed to assess the status of the endangered Yuma Ridgway’s Rail. In 2006, the survey became a multi-species survey effort due to an increase in training provided to the agency personnel conducting the surveys. We need funding to continue this successful and vital training workshop so that the data collected by this collaborative survey effort is reliable and can be used to inform management and listing decisions by the Service and other state, federal, and tribal agencies in the SJV region. The main objective is to offer a rigorous 3-day training workshop for each of the next two years for agency biologists involved in the annual marsh bird survey effort coordinated by the Service.