Explore a comprehensive webinar that addresses critical challenges in managing Pinyon-Juniper woodland-grassland ecosystems and protecting the declining Pinyon Jay population. Learn from USGS scientist Tara Bishop about innovative tools for fire management in Pinyon-Juniper landscapes, incorporating Ecological Site Groups, monitoring data, and machine learning to develop State and Transition Models. Discover how FWS expert Scott Somershoe and the Pinyon Jay Working Group are developing conservation strategies, survey protocols, and predictive occurrence models to better understand and protect this at-risk species. Gain insights from a panel discussion featuring experts from various organizations (FWS, USGS, USFS, AZGFD, GBBO) who explore the complex relationship between woodland management and conservation objectives, working towards solutions that balance multiple management goals while preserving and enhancing Pinyon Jay habitat.
Understanding Pinon-Juniper Encroachment and Pinyon Jay Conservation for Grassland Management
Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox via YouTube
Overview
Syllabus
Tara Bishop USGS leads a team of scientists who build tools for fire management in fire-prone Pinyon-Juniper landscapes using Ecological Site Groups, monitoring data and machine learning. Tara’s group increases the utility of spatial decision tools by developing State and Transition Models based in an Ecological Sites framework that incorporate more robust fuels and fire data. Her team is mapping current conditions, attainable desired conditions, and departure from desired conditions based on end-user and scientific metrics.
Scott Somershoe FWS the Pinyon Jay Working Group and will discuss the group’s Pinyon Jay Conservation Strategy, survey protocols, and a forthcoming predictive occurrence model among other products. The relationship between pinon-juniper woodlands, the grassland-woodland ecotone, and conservation objectives for Pinyon Jays is complicated and poorly understood. With a holistic, landscape scale approach, multiple management objectives can likely be accomplished concurrently while minimizing impacts to, or potentially increased habitat quality for, Pinyon Jays, however research is needed.
Panel Discussion with Scott Somershoe FWS, Tara Bishop USGS, Valerie Foster USFS, Steve Cassady AZGFD, John Boone GBBO, and Edwin Juarez AZGFD
Taught by
Conservation and Adaptation Resources Toolbox
