Completion Form

2023

In the 22/23 fiscal year the project partners have collaborated in regular meetings to develop a new approach to prioritizing SGCN data gaps and species focal areas. Together with Utah's Natural Heritage Program we have developed maps and protocols that will be tested with a subset of the community science volunteers who have given feedback on how best to engage and train volunteers to help fill data gaps by contributing photo vouchers, locations, and in future field efforts. 
During FY 2023, through the continued partnership with the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU, Natural History Museum of Utah, and Sageland Collaborative, UDWR has acquired a robust and well-vetted data set of SGCN herpetofauna observations from a variety of online platforms and museum specimen databases. Additionally, via Sageland Collaborative, UDWR has access to a group of community scientists (over 100 people to-date) who have signed up to receive direction, resources, and official encouragement about what species to look for, where to look for them, and how to properly document observations of those species under the banner of the exciting new community science project, HerpSearch. These community scientists will help contribute new and value-added observations into the foreseeable future. Most importantly, this effort will help UDWR achieve the UWAP objective of updating S-Ranks every 3-5 years, and develop a concise, most-accurate list of herpetofauna SGCNs possible.
Some of the methods employed toward our FY2023 objectives include: 
*	Creation of a Herpetofauna Photo Voucher Guide: Protocol for volunteer community scientists and practitioners to safely gather and share photos of species they find in the field.  
*	Gained Access to, downloaded, and formatted the iNaturalist data set in format for Natural Heritage Program 
*	Initiated contract with expert herpetologist for vetting iNaturalist data and training to format for Natural Heritage Program 
*	Administered a live and electronic survey to interested HerpSearch 'more expert' community scientists to inform aspects of the community science portions of the project in development
*	Developed first draft HerpSearch map which included a Survey123 of UDWR employees and agency partners highlighting areas of interest for Columbia Spotted Frog
*	Analysis of the 21-22 data set and formatting findings for presentation at the Wildlife Society Conference in November of 2023 and in preparation of a scientific manuscript
*	Production of data scrapping or data mining protocols for filling in data gaps on current SGCNs (see attached videos and documents sections)
*	Continued coordination with Natural Heritage Program to update data-scrapping and data-mining efforts and streamline data entry for the next phase of future community science field efforts to gather new observations similar to the Utah Pollinator Pursuit project (another partner project with Sageland Collaborative).
*	Integration of S-ranking evaluation workflow diagram to inform next steps for updating ranking of herpetofauna species of conservation need (see in attached documents section).

It is the goal of the project partners and UDWR to work together on S rank revisions for the upcoming UWAP update. Given the example species of Northern Leopard Frog and Arizona Kingsnake we can already see how many of the SGCN listed species could effect positive change for the few species that will likely remain on the list (e.g. we may find where we can repatriate boreal toads and focus on unique habitat attributes and restoration efforts for other species with declining populations). 
We recommend continuing to advance the non-profit and agency coordination required to utilize community scientists in work relating to herpetofauna SGCN species in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan. Community science programing has the potential to assist UDWR in efforts including habitat improvement work directed by the UDWR, continual monitoring on known populations  
A meeting with native species biologists across regions to determine priority data collection for the next season, will ensure the partners and community scientists are gathering data that will be used by the DWR biologists and for SGCN prioritization and UWAP planning. 
We recommend and plan to support instituting a common data structure across regions and strategy for logging annual herpetofauna field data gathered on physical forms into a centralized statewide database for ease of inclusion into planning processes and Utah Natural Heritage Program.

The protocols and workflows will improve our collaboration with community scientists. A recommended outcome of this effort will be the implementation of continued engagement of Natural History Collections and Community Scientists where UDWR can fill data gaps with our partners and demonstrating that Utah's list of reptile and amphibian species of greatest conservation need is quite short and can be adequately managed with available resources.

Mary Pendergast

09/11/2023 14:41:42