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USFWS Inventory & Monitoring Efforts
Theresa A. Thom, Ph.D.
USFWS Inventory and Monitoring Network
SWPBA – Lake Guntersville, AL
November 2012
Southeast Region – Refuge System
National Wildlife Refuge System
(NWRS) in the Southeast Region
129 Refuges
4 million+ acres
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The Genesis
National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act
(NWRSIA) of 1997
• Provide for the conservation of fish, wildlife, plants and their
habitats;
• Ensure the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health;
• Plan for the continued growth of the System;
• Assist in the maintenance of adequate water quantity and quality;
• Acquire water rights;
• Monitor the status and trends of fish, wildlife, and plants
in EACH refuge
What is the I&M Network?
A nationally coordinated program of inventory and monitoring on the NWRS
to generate information critical to ensuring the System’s ongoing
contributions to the conservation of the nation’s fish, wildlife and plant
resources in the face of climate change and other environmental stressors
The I&M program will document the status, assess the condition of, and
detect changes in the Refuge’s System’s diverse fish, wildlife and plant
communities, physical resources including water air and soils, and ecological
processes in order to support scientific-based conservation planning and
management at multiple spatial scales
Plan & evaluate the effectiveness of conservation strategies in close cooperation
with Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs)
Integration of I&M data to advance conservation at multiple landscape scales
Collaboration with other Service programs, state, federal and conservation partners
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Provide field stations with the foundational ecological information on
which to base planning and management decisions.
Goal: Provide innovative, relevant, and timely water resources information,
assessments, and guidance to refuge staff, regional and national
management, and partners to inform refuge management decisions and
help meet refuge legal requirements.
Goal: Design, develop and maintain and integrated data management
system that supports I&M efforts and promotes data sharing and
collaboration with internal and external partners.
Goal: Ensure that I&M database modules are efficiently utilized by all
stations and they contain accurate, relevant, complete and current data
that are accessible to others and inform NWRS management decisions.
Goal: Establish and implement a coordinated field based assessment with
standard metrics of invasive plant infestations across the Refuge System
that incorporates early detection, identification and treatment of highthreat species, and local adaptive management monitoring for
established invasive species.
What is the I&M Network
Zone structure – Atlantic & Gulf
South Atlantic LCC
Regional coordinator and data manager co-located with NPS
4 ecologist positions co-located on refuges
Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC
Deputy chief and assistant data manager co-located w/refuges/LCC offices
4 biologist/ecologist positions
What We Are Currently Doing
Inventory and monitor fish communities including aquatic invasive species using
tools like eDNA on Savannah and Loxahatchee NWRs
Identifying priority water needs: Water Resource Inventory and Assessments
on NWRS and Hatcheries
Evaluate vulnerability of refuge lands to drought-related issues
Fish Community Assessment
OVERALL PROJECT GOAL:
• Develop standard data
collection techniques to
inventory & monitor
aquatic invasive species
within National Wildlife
Refuge (NWR) waters
– Coordination of effort
– Standardization of data
OBJECTIVES:
• Survey and Population
Assessment
• Monitoring using eDNA
Initial Sampling Sites/Effort
• Stratified random design
• Seasonal (Aug., Nov., Feb., May)
• Multiple habitats
• August 2012
 11 km Little Back River
 3 km Union Creek
 3 km Pool 12/13
 4 km diversion canal
Aquatic Invasive Species
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Red-bellied pacu
Lionfish
Nile tilapia
Mozambique tilapia
Blue tilapia
Asian carp
Invertebrates
parasites
Multiple Agency Benefit
• Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Panel on Aquatic
Invasive Species
• National Aquatic Species Task Force
• Region 4 AIS Program
• Savannah NWR
• Southeast Aquatic
Resource Partnership
• South Atlantic LCC
Partnerships
• Savannah NWR / Coastal
Refuge Complex
• Warm Springs Fish
Technology Center
• Welaka NFH
• Regional Aquatic Invasive
Species Program
• Inventory & Monitoring
• Regional Office –
Fisheries & Refuges
What We Are Currently Doing
Water Resource Inventory & Assessments
Cape Romain NWR, SC
Cahaba River NWR, AL
Cache River NWR, AR
White River NWR, AR
Okefenokee NWR, GA
Lower Suwannee NWR, FL
Erwin National Fish Hatchery, TN
Transparent Prioritization Process
Specific Needs for Partnering
Shared Data
Standardized Protocols
Transparent Prioritization Process
Creative Ways to Work Together
PLEASE CONTACT ME!
Theresa Thom
(843) 784-6262 (office)
(706) 201-1846 (cell)
[email protected]
Questions?
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Provide information on the status and monitoring of species classified
under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the Refuge System.
Goal: Provide summaries of vegetation resources on Refuge lands and
ensure each refuge has the capacity to efficiently acquire vegetative covers
datasets that meet their specific needs.
Goal: Ensure each refuge has the capacity to utilize core abiotic base data
layers in order to inform management decisions on Refuge lands.
Goal: Ensure bird inventory and monitoring surveys on refuge lands are
scientifically credible, evaluate refuge contributions to local, regional,
landscape, flyway,and continental scale bird population objectives, and
are coordinated across the landscape with other Service programs and
our partners. The data will be used to assess the size, distribution, and
status of bird populations and to gauge the success of management and
conservation efforts.
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Where needed, to conduct baseline inventories of vertebrates,
vascular plants, and a subset of invertebrates on all refuge lands.
Goal: Ensure that phenological monitoring conducted on refuge land is
scientifically credible and will be used to inform climate related
management questions at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Goal: To support the implementation of adaptive management at multiple
spatial scales.
Goal: To assess the baseline quality of wilderness character on all
designated wilderness within the Refuge System and then monitor trends
in wilderness character over time using a nationally consistent approach.
Goal: Ensure that surrogate species monitoring surveys on refuge lands
are scientifically credible, evaluate refuge contributions to local, regional,
and landscape scale population and habitat objectives, and are
coordinated across the landscape with other Service programs and our
partners. The data will be used to assess the size, distribution, and status
of the selected populations and to gauge the success of management and
conservation efforts.
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Generate fire history atlases for high priority refuges and ensure fire
effects monitoring data can be utilized to assess the success of refuge
management objectives.
Goal: To provide coastal refuges with the information necessary to evaluate
potential impacts of sea level rise to coastal habitats and wildlife.
Goal: To summarize in one place key materials (documents, permits,
reviews, plans, etc.) useful for refuge planning and vulnerability
assessments. Examples include abiotic resources such as topographic
maps, aerial photography, water resources inventories and assessments,
HGM reports, as well as biotic resources such as a catalogue of
inventories, veg maps, vulnerability assessments, banding, salvage, and
endangered species permits, and hunting, fishing, trapping plans, CCPs,
HMPs, IMPs, Wilderness Character Measures, and reports from Wildlife
and Habitat Reviews.
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Provide baseline inventory data needed to assist with the assessment
of the effects of unforeseen disasters and integrate refuge monitoring data
with existing marine networks.
Goal: That all field station periodically generate a standardized refuge
condition assessment report that aligns with other land management status
updates.
Goal: Develop a nationally coordinated monitoring effort that incorporates
wildlife health surveillance, includes training Refuge employees how
minimize the potential for disease transmission to other sites, and prevent
the transmission of zoonotic agents; identification (or development) of a
baseline database used to detect changes in disease expression; and
identifying high risk areas likely to experience changes in pathogen and/or
vector populations.
What is the I&M Network?
Goal: Implement a coordinated air quality biomonitoring (AQB) effort on
refuge lands to provide assistance in prioritizing management of limited
Service resources; enhance legal and policy-making decisions in light of
climate change issues; and complement existing monitoring efforts
underway by Branch of Air Quality (BAQ).
Goal: Develop a nationally coordinated monitoring effort that incorporates
wildlife health surveillance, includes training Refuge employees how
minimize the potential for disease transmission to other sites, and prevent
the transmission of zoonotic agents; identification (or development) of a
baseline database used to detect changes in disease expression; and
identifying high risk areas likely to experience changes in pathogen and/or
vector populations.
What We Are Currently Doing
Monitoring marsh elevation and relative sea-level rise
Currently, 20 sites with three RSET stations installed on 18 coastal refuges
Working with partners to ensure monitoring compatibility and data
integration – NPS, USGS, TNC, NOAA, Refuges, South Atlantic LCC
Refuge managers can use data locally to answer critical questions and adjust
management; SALCC will use data to run and validate landscape scale models