The need for this project remains the same as the previous fiscal year. However, the project planning, development strategy, and engagement of community scientists has occurred, and an additional year of funding is needed to begin implementation. Addressing data gaps is a priority for the 2015 Utah Wildlife Action Plan (UWAP), and "crucial data gaps" are those gaps in knowledge or understanding that severely impede our ability to detect, diagnose, and abate threats to species and habitats (UWAP, p163). Crucial data gaps related to the inadequate understanding of distribution or range are one of the most pressing issues for reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna) identified as species of greatest conservation need (SGCN). The purpose of the SGCN list is to identify native wildlife species that do, or plausibly could, present the possibility of an Endangered Species Act listing (UWAP, p234). Under the 2015 UWAP there are 8 amphibians and 12 reptile SGCNs and each of these species is considered to have a relatively high conservation priority (state rank of 3 or lower). While under national rankings (NatureServe) 7 of the amphibians and 11 of the reptiles have relatively low conservation priorities. The relatively low priority National Ranks, and the relatively high priority State ranks, for UWAP SGCNs together point to a misalignment in the conservation priorities for herpetofauna in Utah versus the national level. Part of this misalignment is that much of Utah's SGCN herpetofauna have broad distributions across North America, but in Utah these same species occur at the fringe of this broad distribution. Additionally, many of the SGCN herps are notoriously difficult to observe, due to their cryptic nature and/or because they are only surface-active for short seasonal windows, or under fleeting weather conditions. Finally, the state is not currently using all of the available species observation data to update herpetofauna S-Ranks. There are numerous relatively new resources that can provide UDWR and UNHP with herpetofauna species observations that will help us re-calculate S-Ranks more accurately, and ultimately to define a smaller, better-prioritized set of SGCNs. Data sources include but are not limited to online databases such as VertNet (www.vertnet.org) Arctos (https://arctos.database.museum), and Consortium of Small Vertebrate Collections (https://search.dataone. org/data), iNatralist (https://www.inaturalist.org/), academic and amateur herpetofauna Facebook and Instagram group pages. Currently, UDWR and UNHP do not routinely use the resources above to update our Natural Heritage Database and to recalculate S-Ranks. In August of 2019 NatureServe announced that they will be creating an Observation Data Standard that includes citizen science observations from resources like iNat and more well-known social media platforms to calculate N-ranks and S-ranks. In consideration of all of this, it is an ideal time to establish partnerships that will aid UDWR and UNHP to update and revise S-ranks for Utah's herpetofauna. The UWAP offers excellent guidance for this effort, and specifically mentions the following: "strengths and capacities vary among partners, and the fullest understanding of actual needs and priorities will come from maximum collaboration. In any scheme for filling data gaps, there is an implicit "order of operations" for many steps in the information needed to effectively conserve UWAP targets." We will use community science to strategically locate important species observations via a variety of resources available on the internet. In addition, we will prepare and present a map that guides the future efforts of amateur naturalists and community scientists so that new species observations are not redundant and are truly value added. Sageland Collaborative (previously Wild Utah Project) has a long-standing history of engaging dedicated community scientists from diverse backgrounds and interests, by providing training opportunities where volunteers gain skills in ecological field methodologies and desktop analyses. This conservation science-focused non-profit leverages the power of community science to support state and federal wildlife and habitat management agencies in filling crucial data gaps to inform conservation planning and monitoring efforts. Sageland Collaborative will support DWR in developing standardized protocols and methodologies to fill crucial data gaps identified in Utah's Wildlife Action Plan (UWAP). These methodologies will be standardized to ensure the utility of data outputs for managers as well as the ease and clarity for training a diverse group of community scientist participants to support data-gathering efforts. In 2022, the second phase of this project, we have continued to formalize our partnership and long-term relationship with Brigham Young University's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (the Bean), specifically the reptile and amphibian collection. The Bean currently curates more than 40,000 specimens of reptiles and amphibians, and this includes both whole animal specimens, tissues, and photo-vouchers. Additionally, the Bean is a partner institution with VertNet (which hosts 21,556,080 records); specimens cataloged at the Bean are easily searchable via this database collaboration. Finally, since circa 2006 the Bean has informally hosted a social gathering of professional and amateur herpetologists colloquially called "the Pickle Party". This gathering has helped develop a network of community scientists, amateur naturalists, academics, and agency biologists who contribute valuable SGCN observations to a formal and scientifically robust repository. To date, the Pickle Party has helped catalogue about 1150 specimens at The Bean, this averages to around 100-150 specimens per year. UDWR has been an informal participant of the Pickle Party since 2009. Beginning in 2019 UDWR will be a formal partner and participant with the Bean and the Pickle Party. The Bean and the Pickle Party are an ideal annual forum where Sageland Collaborative, UDWR, and the Bean can strategically direct the efforts of a remarkable network of amateur and professional herpetologists. Through the partnership with the Bean and Sageland Collaborative, UDWR has begun to acquire a robust and well-vetted data set of SGCN herpetofauna observations. Additionally, via Sageland Collaborative, UDWR will gain a well-trained group of community scientists who have 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. These trained 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 achieve the shortest, most-accurate list of herpetofauna SGCNs possible.

Goal -- The goal of this project is to acquire a robust and well-vetted data set of SGCN herpetofauna observations. Additionally, through a partnership with Sageland Collaborative (Sageland Collaborative and Brigham Young University's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (the Bean), UDWR will engage and validate the efforts of a well-trained group of community scientist who have direction, resources, and official confirmation and encouragement from state biologists about what species to look for, where to look for them, and how to properly document observations of those species from new online resources. These trained community scientists will help contribute to new and value-added observations into the foreseeable future. Objective 1 -- Implementation of a database of currently available herp observation and museum records Task 1 -- Continue to update and harvest existing UNHP data: please see a description of each task in the methods section. Task 2 --Continue storing incoming data and avoid data silos. Objective 2 -- Continue execution of data digitization and data discovery (online databases and social media) protocols and community science programming Task 1 -- Implement internal data digitization protocol. Task 2 -- Implement data mining/data discovery protocol. Objective 3 -- Implementation of and online access to community science program materials, community scientist recruitment, and execution of virtual community science training events with in-person events when possible. Task 1 -- Implement community science training protocols, materials, and online resources. Task 2 -- Continue to Recruit, engage, and update community scientists lists and communications. Task 3 -- Plan and host virtual (and in-person when possible) community science engagement events. Objective 4 --Implement recent re-evaluation of SGCN species, prioritize habitat areas and species for future survey efforts, and target areas of missing data based on UWAP needs Task 1 -- Outline remaining data gaps for each herpetofauna SGCN and develop map visualizing gaps on the landscape based on updated data.

Not applicable

Under the 2015 Utah Wildlife Action Plan there are 20 herpetofauna SGCNs and each of these species is considered to have a relatively high conservation priority (state rank of 3 or lower). While under national rankings (NatureServe) 7 of the amphibians and 11 of the reptiles have relatively low conservation priorities. The relatively low priority National Ranks, and the relatively high priority State ranks, for UWAP SGCNs together point to a misalignment in the conservation priorities for herpetofauna in Utah versus the national level. Part of this misalignment is that much of Utah's SGCN herpetofauna have broad distributions across North America, but in Utah these same species occur at the fringe of this broad distribution. Additionally, many of the SGCN herps are notoriously difficult to observe, due to their cryptic nature and/or because they are only surface-active for short seasonal windows, or under fleeting weather conditions. Finally, the state is not currently using all the available species observation data to update herpetofauna S- Ranks. There are numerous relatively new resources that can provide UDWR and UNHP with herpetofauna species observations that will help us re-calculate S-Ranks more accurately, and ultimately to define a smaller, better-prioritized set of SGCNs. This proposal identifies strategic partners and objectives that will address data gaps associated with the threats analyses resulting SGCN designation in the UWAP and help alleviate the following issues that are directly related to data gaps: >obscuring the true abundance and/or distribution of SGCNs >obscuring the true location and/or condition of key habitats >obscuring the true scope and/or severity (thus impact) of threats >obscuring the actual need for, and/or the effectiveness of, conservation actions

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable--- This primary project effort is first and foremost a development of a community science training program to address the issue of SGCN herpetofauna distribution data gaps. No 'on the ground' field efforts to collect species will occur in FY 2023.

Objective 1 -- Implementation of a database of currently available herp observation and museum records Task 1 -- Continue to incorporate existing occurrence data into the UNHP database: A computer scientist or technician will write a program to harvest data and deposit it in a combined database. Additionally, the programming for searching, sorting, and visualizing data will be developed to allow for visualization of distribution by species, by observation type over time. This program will be made available to the project partners and eventually to the wider public at spatial scales that do not reveal site specific or sensitive species locations. Additionally, a template for the programming for searching, sorting, and visualizing data has been developed for one example species (Northern leopard frog) to allow for visualization of distribution by species, by observation type over time. This program will be made available to the project partners and eventually to the wider public at spatial scales that do not reveal site specific or sensitive species locations. D.E. Dittmer has been coordinating the data vetting and QA/QC efforts across Sageland Collaborative, USU, NHMU, and BYU and updating UDWR's UNHP staff at weekly meetings. In 2021 and 2022 the UNHP staff and D.E. Dittmer has begun using the project management platform Trello to document their progress across this effort. This coordination will continue with the support of Mary Pendergast, Sageland Collaborative and Liz Moore, UNHP and support staff into 2022 and 2023. Task 2 --Continue store incoming data and avoid data silos: The 2020 and 2021 Pandemic prevented us from responsibly using funds to host a data digitization training workshop to be given by VertNet. Instead we repurposed funds to support a University of Utah Graduate student of the Womack Lab, Megan Kepas. Kepas's work is helping develop standardized protocols for quality control and assurance of data from HerpMapper. We plan to continue to coordinate the Womack Lab to maintain data digitization support. Objective 2 -- Continue execution of data digitization and data discovery (online databases and social media) protocols and community science programming Task 1 -- Implement internal data digitization protocol: The workflow developed in 2021 will continue to be implemented where UDWRs historical records and reports are digitized and added to a searchable database (modification of existing platforms like BYU, NHMU, VertNet) that also ensures new herpetofauna observation can be contributed to the database in a streamlined fashion for the partner data stewards. Relevant historical reports and datasets can be documented with voucher specimens (both fluid preserved and/or photo vouchers) using Arctos as the digital data aggregation tool. Task 2 -- Implement data mining/data discovery protocol: the protocol developed in 2021 with UDWR, Sageland Collaborative, and BYU is being implemented for mining data from existing online data sources (including but not limited to VertNet, Arctos, and Consortium of Small Vertebrate Collections, iNatralist, Herpmapper, and academic and amateur herpetofauna Facebook and Instagram group pages. These protocols will be developed with the intention of translating the data mining methods into a community science training program. Additional work is being done to digitize and enter old hard copy specimen data through BYU's Life Sciences Museum. Objective 3 -- Implementation and online access to community science program materials, community scientist recruitment, and execution of virtual community science training events with in-person events when possible. Task 1 -- Implement community science training protocols, materials, and online resources: Protocols and presentation materials are being formalized among partners in advance of virtual (and in- person when possible) community science trainings, online resources for community scientists to reference will be made available. Task 2 -- Continue to Recruit, engage, and update community scientist lists and communications: Recruitment of community scientists will continue to take place through various channels including but not limited to: current Sageland Collaborative community science participant listserv, annual BYU pickle party participants (expert and amateur herpetologists), local academic institutions, and social media posts in relevant groups (for example Utah Frogs and Toads, Utah FrogWatch). Sageland Collaborative continues to coordinate formal communications via community scientist email invitations, RSVPs, and level-participation survey tracking using sophisticated relation databases (Little Green Light and MailChimp). Task 3 -- Plan and host virtual (and in-person when possible) community science engagement events: A recruitment event will continue to be implemented in coordination with the annual herpetological specimen pickling party (aka Pickle Party). Community scientists are given a brief presentation from the project partners and receive some preliminary information regarding the data mining support they can provide. Participants at virtual (and in-person when possible) community science events will be asked to complete a survey regarding their level of interest/engagement preferences for data mining existing online database and social media platforms when it suits their personal schedules as well as interest in future field efforts. Additional new herpetofauna community science training events will be developed and implemented for data mining participation using social media and public databases like iNaturalist. Objective 4 -- Implement recent re-evaluation of SGCN species, prioritize habitat areas and species for future survey efforts, and target areas of missing data. Task 1 -- Outline remaining data gaps for each herpetofauna SGCN and develop map visualizing gaps on the landscape based on updated data Data gaps regarding inadequate understanding of distribution and range or unknown population or occurrence information (current SGCN Threats outlined in the UWAP) have been identified. This will allow the partners to list any outlying records that can be further investigated by checking museum records and verifying observations. Additionally, a visual representation of data gaps on the landscape has been developed for a single species (Northern leopard frog as a pilot species). By mapping the current herpetofauna SGCN species occurrence information will be replicated for other SGCNs in advance of the 2022 and 2023 formal community science training events.

Project success will be evidenced by the documentation of the number of herpetofauna SGCNs that receive an updated S-rank and how many of those get reprioritized based on data gathered through this community science supported effort. Additionally, a measure of efficiency in SGCN prioritization could be made based on what % of occurrence data considered for S-ranks to fill crucial data gaps on habitat distribution and population were gathered through this community science project.

Utah Division of Natural Resources, Native Aquatics Coordinator, Drew E. Dittmer Dr. Drew Dittmer will coordinate the work of Dr Pendergast and Dr. Whiting. Drew is a Herpetologist and Wildlife Biologist with 15+ years of experience. Dr. Dittmer's MSc research involved partnering with and using the resources of several different natural history museums/collections, and through this process he learned the immeasurable value of these institutions. Since being hired by UDWR Dr. Dittmer has increased the collaboration with BYU to achieve both better data for management of Utah's Reptiles and Amphibians, but also to improve UDWR's relationship with its under-appreciated community of Reptile and Amphibian enthusiasts. Dr. Dittmer will commit 25% of his time to the effort described in this project. He will oversee the agreement with Dr. Pendergast of Sageland Collaborative. Also, in 2019 Dr. Dittmer assumed the role of maintaining and managing the contact list for the "Pickle Party" at BYU. In late 2021 Dr. Dittmer will coordinate the planning of and invitations to the Pickle Party with Dr. Whiting (BYU). Dr. Dittmer will also continue and increase his effort to use iNaturalist to engage with Utah's amateur naturalist community. Sageland Collaborative (, Ecologist, Mary E. Pendergast Dr. Mary Pendergast will be the primary point of contact for Sageland Collaborative's role in this project. Mary is an ecologist with more than 15 years of experience working in the Intermountain West with non-profit, state and federal agencies, and academic partners. In the last 6 years of work with Sageland Collaborative ( she has directed and executed 3 or more community science projects on an annual basis. Each of these efforts have assisted in filling habitat and wildlife data gaps to support state and federal agencies tasked with conservation planning and decision-making processes. Brigham Young University's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (the Bean), Curator of Herpetology, Alison Whiting Dr. Alison Whiting is the curator of the reptile and amphibian collection at BYU. Dr. Whiting's primary role will be to continue to coordinate with D.E. Dittmer to plan and host the annual "Pickle Party" that was detailed in our response to question 5. Additionally, BYU will help curate and store the data that are generated via the pickle party. The data curation and storage will require no additional costs or time. Planning the Pickle Party will require two 8 hour work days plus 8 hours for the day of the actual event.

The effort above will implement the protocols and workflows established in 2020 and 2021 that will improve UDWR's ability to regularly update s-ranks and achieve UWAP implementation. Additionally, the protocols and workflows will improve our collaboration with community scientists. An outcome of this effort will be the implementation of a formal training event in coordination with the annual herpetological specimen pickling party (aka Pickle Party). Community scientists will be given a training presentation from the project partners and receive training materials, information, and a practice data mining case study/scenario/simulation opportunity. Participants in the community science training will be empowered to glean data from existing online database and social media platforms when it suits their personal schedules. A follow-up 'Thank You' event will be scheduled where the partners will have the opportunity to get feedback from community scientists in order to hone specific data mining strategies within the scope of the project. Finally, this effort will be a highly proactive approach to preventing ESA listing for Utah's reptiles and amphibians. Through the engagement of Natural History Collections and Community Scientists we will fill data gaps and demonstrate that Utah's list of reptile and amphibian species of greatest conservation need is quite short and can be adequately managed with available resources. 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. We hope to build on this effort in 2022 and 2033 by potentially expanding our partnership with BYU to the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah as well. This will build the states capacity to access updated SGCN distribution and habitat prioritization methods as need in future efforts in a more streamlined and automated fashion without increased burden internally. Additionally, each year the community science data-gathering efforts and training events take place the more engagement we expect to garner and the better our understanding of how to winnow-down and reprioritize SGNs. We expect future tasks and costs to evolve but be similar to this year's proposal.

Not applicable

07/01/2022

06/30/2023

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).

This partnership is blazing a new trial toward taking iNaturalist data and other existing data platforms with species of conservation need observations and cleaning it to contribute to the State's Natural Heritage Program. Additionally, we will be able to communicate how S ranks are currently being calculated and how we can update them along with the species of greatest conservation need list of 20 herpetofauna species in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan.

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.