Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide

United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service

Gen. Tech. Report WO-71

July 2006

Medicine Lake

Mt. Shasta Intermountain Great Basin

Cascade Sierra

West Coast

Colorado Plateau and SW Mtns

Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide

Brian Woodbridge and Christina D. Hargis

Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Design Team

Brian Woodbridge Christina D. Hargis Richard T. Reynolds

James A. Baldwin Gregory D. Hayward Kimberly Titus

Alan Franklin Sarah R. Dewey Christopher W. Schultz

Alan L. Williamson Douglas A. Boyce, Jr. John J. Keane

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington Office

Ecosystem Management Coordination Staff

Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants Staff

United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service

Gen. Tech. Report WO-71

July 2006

Proper citation for this document is as follows:

Woodbridge, B.; Hargis, C.D. 2006. Northern goshawk inventory and monitoring technical guide. Gen.

Tech. Rep. WO-71. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 80 p.

Cover Photo: The concept of bioregional monitoring is conveyed through three photos superimposed

on a digital elevation model of the Western United States, including portions of the Pacific Coast

and Intermountain Great Basin bioregions. The overlaid images depict three levels of the bioregional

monitoring design: a sample of contiguous PSUs in northern California (top), a PSU with call point

transect lines (middle), and a northern goshawk nest (bottom). Photo credit: Brian Woodbridge. Composite

image designed by Dave LaPlante.

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Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide iii

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the previous work of several individuals in the realm of

goshawk monitoring; their ideas, field work, and publications are the basis of this

technical guide. In particular, we acknowledge the contributions made by S.R. Dewey,

S.M. Joy, J.J. Keane, P.L. Kennedy, V. Penteriani, R.T. Reynolds, and D.W. Stahlecker.

The bioregional monitoring design presented in chapter 2 was created by the North-

ern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Design Team, whose members are listed on

the title page of this technical guide. We give special recognition to J.A. Baldwin for

contributing substantial time toward developing the bioregional design and preparing

all the statistical text in chapter 2. We are grateful to D. LaPlante and B. Allison for

spatial analyses of primary sampling unit (PSU) size and for preparing figures and to

J. Wilson and H. Wang for preparing the figure in Appendix C. We thank the follow-

ing individuals who substantially improved the quality of this technical guide through

their review of earlier versions: D.E. Andersen, P.H. Geissler, T.A. Max, A.R. Olson,

M.G. Raphael, L.F. Ruggiero, H.T. Schreuder, and J.R. Squires.

Authors

Brian Woodbridge is supervisor of the Forest Resources Branch, U.S. Fish & Wildlife

Service, Yreka, CA.

Christina D. Hargis (name changed to Christina D. Vojta) is a wildlife ecologist,

Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants Staff, USDA Forest Service,

Washington Office, Washington, DC.

iv Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide

Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide v

Contents

Acknowledgments ......................................................................................iii

Contents .........................................................................................................v

Chapter 1. Overview .................................................................................1-1 1.1 Overview ..................................................................................................... 1-1

1.2 Background and Business Needs ................................................................ 1-1

1.3 Key Concepts ............................................................................................... 1-3

1.4 Roles and Responsibilities ........................................................................... 1-5 1.4.1 National Responsibilities ..........................................................1-5 1.4.2 Regional Responsibilities ..........................................................1-5

1.4.3 Forest Responsibilities ..............................................................1-5

1.5 Relationships to Other Federal Inventory and Monitoring Programs ......... 1-6 1.5.1 Forest Service Programs ...........................................................1-6

1.5.2 Programs in Other Federal Agencies .........................................1-6

1.6 Quality Control and Assurance .................................................................... 1-7

1.7 Change Management ................................................................................... 1-7

Chapter 2. Bioregional Monitoring Design .........................................2-1 2.1 Objective ...................................................................................................... 2-1

2.2 Planning and Design .................................................................................... 2-3

2.2.1 Goshawk Natural History Relevant to the Bioregional

Sampling Design ................................................................................ 2-3

2.2.2 Description and Rationale for Monitoring Design ............................ 2-5

2.3 Data Collection .......................................................................................... 2-14

2.3.1 Data Collection Methods and Rationale .......................................... 2-14

2.3.2 Quality Control/Quality Assurance .................................................. 2-17

2.3.3 Data Entry Forms ............................................................................. 2-19

2.3.4 Survey Logistics ............................................................................... 2-19

2.4 Data Storage and Management .................................................................. 2-20

2.5 Data Analysis ............................................................................................. 2-21

2.5.1 Estimating the Bioregional Frequency of Occurrence

of Goshawks .................................................................................... 2-21

2.5.2 Assessing Changes in Goshawk Frequency of Occurrence

Over Time ........................................................................................ 2-22

2.5.3 Evaluating Change in Occupancy Rate in Relation to Change

in Habitat or Other Environmental Variables ................................... 2-23

vi Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide

2.6 Reporting ................................................................................................... 2-24

2.6.1 Expected Reports ............................................................................. 2-24

2.6.2 Reporting Schedule .......................................................................... 2-24

Chapter 3. Goshawk Survey Techniques ............................................... 3-1 3.1 Objectives .................................................................................................... 3-1

3.2 Planning and Design .................................................................................... 3-1

3.2.1 Aspects of Goshawk Natural History Related to Survey

Methodology ..........................................................................................3-1

3.2.2 Sampling Designs .............................................................................. 3-5

3.3 Data Collection ............................................................................................ 3-6

3.3.1 Survey Methods ................................................................................. 3-6

3.3.2 Quality Control/Quality Assurance .................................................. 3-18

3.4. Data Storage .............................................................................