NFWF Grant Profile

Implement a collaborative study during the 2018 field seasons partnering with the U.S. Forest Service, University of Alaska, Oregon State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and others, to investigate methodologies recommended during a January 2018 Conservation Planning Meeting for estimating abundance of Aleutian terns at colony sites within Alaska. This project will advance methods and protocols for site-level population assessments to further advance Aleutian tern conservation and research using WEST Inc. (Laramie, WY) to investigate the application of drones for assessing Aleutian tern abundance at colony sites, and Conservation Metrics, Inc. (Santa Cruz, CA) for acoustic analysis from song meters and experimental automated image analysis from drones, and WEST, Inc. to continue their work refining methods and developing a monitoring framework from the January 2018 meeting.