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.

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.

The BLM-administered lands managed by the Cedar City Field Office are an important place to study the effects of pinyon-juniper removal on pinyon jays because there are plans to continue extensive management in the future, and this region is in the middle of the pinyon jay distribution, where they are found in relatively high densities relative to the range. Given the concern for the species at the state and national levels, this is one of the most important areas to test and implement new management strategies that include pinyon jay success as a goal.

A Conservation Strategy for Pinyon Jay was developed by The Pinyon Jay Working Group, which includes a comprehensive review of current knowledge of Pinyon Jays (Somershoe 2020). This research will also support the developing Utah Pinyon Jay Conservation Agreement and Strategy.

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BLM will work cooperatively and coordinate actively with Southern Utah University and UDWR throughout the implementation of the project. This will ensure that all partners have a clear path moving forward to accomplish the objectives that have been identified for the project.

Using methods recommended by the UDWR and Pinyon Jay Working Group, breeding colonies will continue to be discovered through 6-minute point counts administered ½ 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.

We will continue to survey for pinyon jays each year. Pinyon jay breeding colonies will be located and monitored annually (we are currently aware of 22 past and present breeding colonies in the region), and habitat will be measured remotely and on the ground, to inform plans for selecting stands for restoration and for designing transition zones of thinned trees adjacent to cleared areas. Habitat modeling and resource selection are important goals, especially in drought conditions and with respect to the potential pinyon jay sensitivity to climate change (Butler et al. 2013) to serve as information on future land management decisions in pinyon jay and other pinyon-juniper obligate species habitats.

This project will be supported either financially or conceptually by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and local landowners. Southern Utah University would also be a partner on this project. There is no known opposition to this project.

The data collected would provide guidance and suggestions in habitat restoration project designs. Additionally, information collected would provide managers information when making land management decisions within pinyon-juniper woodlands habitat. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act establishes federal responsibility for the protection of migratory bird resources, including providing habitat and minimizing impacts. Finally, modeling pinyon jay habitat selection under various scenarios would be valuable in future population monitoring efforts.

This monitoring will increase knowledge of pinyon jay distribution and promote population monitoring efforts. Pine nut monitoring will also help access pinyon-juniper resilience to management and/or climate change.