Project Details

Pinyon-juniper management is a widespread tool for achieving important land-use goals in southern Utah, specifically sagebrush and grassland restoration. The goal of pinyon-juniper removal projects is to improve habitat for greater sage-grouse, other grassland birds of concern (e.g., sage thrasher, sagebrush sparrow), big game species, and grazing livestock. These habitat restoration projects are a priority through the Utah Watershed Initiative program, and >20,000 acres are currently being treated per year by the Bureau of Land Management Cedar City Field Office (BLM CCFO) on BLM administered lands.

These land management restoration practices have renewed interest on the impacts to breeding bird communities in pinyon-juniper woodlands (Gallo and Pejchar 2016), particularly pinyon-jays (Boone et al. 2018). The pinyon jay has shown an estimated decline of 85% since the 1970s (Rosenberg et al. 2016, Johnson and Sadoti 2023). This decline has led to the pinyon jay being identified as a US Fish and Wildlife Service Species of Conservation Concern within the Southern Rockies/Colorado Plateau (Wiggins 2005), being put on the Watch List by Partners of Flight and National Audubon Society, and considered a BLM Sensitive Species in ID, NM, and NV. Additionally, it is currently being evaluated for addition to the Endangered Species List.

There are several non-mutually exclusive hypotheses for the decline of pinyon jays. One is that extended drought is affecting the pinyon pine crop, which has also declined by 40% since the 1970s (Remond et al. 2012), limiting food resources for a species (Johnson et al. 2017) that will delay breeding when pine nuts are scarce (Ligon 1978). Another is that increased grazing, decreased fire, and clearing for mining has led to denser pinyon-juniper forests, and these closed canopy communities have a depressed pinyon pine nut crop due to competition over limited water supplies (Miller et al. 2019). And a third is that habitat conversion of pinyon-juniper is an additional limiting factor, as removal projects often occur at the sagebrush/pinyon-juniper transition that is used by the pinyon jay (Johnson and Sadoti 2023). It is important to understand the potential relative effects of each to make sound land management decisions.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

To make sound management decisions, this study aims to identify habitat preferences of pinyon jays in pinyon-juniper woodlands of varying seral stages and management histories. The study design includes using multiscale habitat data (i.e., point counts, breeding colony and nest locations, drone analysis of woodland structure, satellite telemetry) to monitor habitat use. These data will be integrated with remotely-sensed landscape, fire, and management data to inform future management.

There have been discussions about how to improve restoration projects to include pinyon jay success as an additional goal to habitat restoration projects. One approach may be to cut a transition zone to clear infill; in these sites a zone of trees of variable age classes would be left next to clearings made for sage grouse and livestock, rather than hard edges between closed canopy forests and open rangeland. This transition zone would ensure that all successional stages of the pinyon-juniper are preserved, including the more open, early to mid-successional stages where pinyon jay breeding colonies are more often observed in southern Utah (Bolus, personal observation). It is important to understand the habitat structure that pinyon jays use to better design this removal strategy.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Using methods recommended by the UDWR and Pinyon Jay Working Group, breeding colonies will continue to be discovered through 6-minute point counts administered ÃÂÃÂ½ mile intervals along roads in pinyon-juniper habitat. Once breeding behaviors are observed, on foot surveys are made to identify nest locations. In 2020-2024, we identified 22 breeding colonies.

At breeding colonies, stand characteristics will be measured on the ground and using drones. At each active nest location, vegetation plots will be made around the nest tree and at a location 100m away in a random location to evaluation nest site selection at a fine scale. In these plots, trees will be counted, measured (DRC, height, area, crown width), and estimates of ground cover, canopy cover, and shrub density will be made. Pinyon pines will be assessed for vigor and cone count. We have already completed ground measurements at the locations of 15 active nests and 15 paired random locations to date and will continue to collect these data as active nests are identified. In 2025, at the centroid of each breeding colony Wingtra Gen II and Matrice 300 drones will be employed to measure 100 acres of woodland using aerial photography. The main two products will include 1) an RGB Orthorectified Mosaic aerial imagery in tif format, and 2) an Orthorectified Multispec 5 Band Mosaic Imagery in tif format. These data will be used to measure stand structure including species composition, and variability and spacing of size classes of trees.

To study larger scale movements, pinyon jays will be captured in each of 3 study sites (n =3) using mist nests and or walk-in traps (Johnson et al. 2016) and fitted with 2g solar PTT satellite transmitters to remotely collect frequent location data. These movement data will be used to model habitat use and identify the location of breeding and caching sites in addition to those identified through systematic surveys on the ground. These tags were already purchased and are still in working order.

At each confirmed bird location (satellite data, point counts, centroids of breeding colonies), buffers will be made around each point in ArcGIS, and important climatic (e.g., precipitation, temperature, etc.) and landscape (e.g., slope, aspect, habitat type, fire history, management history, etc.) variables will be measured to summarize pinyon jay use. These buffers will be compared to randomly selected locations to assess habitat choice. This will help determine stand characteristics that pinyon jays prefer.

Knowing habitat use at the landscape scale will help managers evaluate the effects of managing different stands, and knowing habitat use at the within stand scale (from ground and aerial measurements) will help inform thinning strategies with precision.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.