Skip Links

USGS HomeContact USGSSearch USGS

Open-File Report 2013–1176

Pubs Warehouse

### Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

# Accuracy of the Missouri River Least Tern and Piping PloverMonitoring Program—Considerations for the Future

#### By Terry L. Shaffer, Mark H. Sherfy, Michael J. Anteau, Jennifer H. Stucker, Marsha A. Sovada, Erin A. Roche, Mark T. Wiltermuth, Thomas K. Buhl, and Colin M. Dovichin

| Abstract
The upper Missouri River system provides nesting and foraging habitat for federally endangered least terns (*Sternula antillarum*; hereafter “terns”) and threatened piping plovers (*Charadrius melodus*; hereafter “plovers”). These species are the subject of substantial management interest on the Missouri River for several reasons. First, ecosystem recovery is a goal for management agencies that seek to maintain or restore natural functions and native biological communities for the Missouri River system. Terns and plovers are recognized as important ecosystem components that are linked with the river’s ecological functions. Second, although both species breed beyond the Missouri River system, the Missouri River is one of the principal breeding areas in the Northern Great Plains; thus, the river system is a focal area for recovery actions targeted at regional population goals. Third, a Biological Opinion for Missouri River operations established annual productivity goals for terns and plovers, and the recovery plan for each species established annual population goals. Meeting these goals is a key motivation in management decision making and implementation with regard to both species.

A myriad of conservation and management interests necessitate understanding numbers, distribution, and productivity of terns and plovers on the Missouri River system. To this end, a Tern and Plover Monitoring Program (TPMP) was implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (hereafter “Corps”) in 1986, and has since provided annual estimates of tern and plover numbers and productivity for five Missouri River reservoirs and four river reaches (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1993). The TPMP has served as the primary source of information about the status of terns and plovers on the Missouri River, and TPMP data have been used for a wide variety of purposes. In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) was tasked by the Corps to evaluate the accuracy of the TPMP and provide guidance on revising the program to assess tern and plover numbers and reproductive success. Accordingly, NPWRC studied terns and plovers on two river reaches and one reservoir (hereafter “the evaluation”), and used the results of those studies to help understand properties and potential limitations of TPMP data and to provide guidance for TPMP revisions. The purpose of this report is to present an overview and evaluation of the TPMP data, the results of our intensive monitoring, and propose an alternative idea that provides a framework for making decisions about how to monitor terns and plovers.                   | First posted December 2, 2013
-  **Report** PDF (7.33 MB) 
-  **Appendix 1** XLS (39 kB)   
-  **Appendix 2** PDF (898 kB)   
-  **Appendix 3** XLS (68 kB)   

**For additional information contact:**     Director, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center          U.S. Geological Survey          8711 37th Street Southeast          Jamestown, North Dakota 58401http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/

Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). For best results viewing and printing PDF documents, it is recommended that you download the documents to your computer and open them with Adobe Reader. PDF documents opened from your browser may not display or print as intended. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge. |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

----

### Suggested citation:

Shaffer, T.L., Sherfy, M.H., Anteau, M.J., Stucker, J.H., Sovada, M.A., Roche, E.A., Wiltermuth, M.T., Buhl, T.K., and Dovichin, C.M., 2013, Accuracy of the Missouri River Least Tern and Piping Plover Monitoring Program—Considerations for the future: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1176, 74 p., with 4 appendixes, *http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131176.*

ISSN 0196-1497 (print)

ISSN 2331-1258 (online)

----

### Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Current Tern and Plover Monitoring Program

3.0 Evaluation of the Monitoring Program

4.0 Evaluation of the TPDMS and Monitoring Metrics

5.0 Objectives for Future Monitoring

6.0 Proposed Approach to Monitoring

7.0 Spatial Data Needs and Analysis

8.0 Data Summary and Reporting

9.0 Implementation

References Cited

Appendixes

AccessibilityFOIAPrivacyPolicies and Notices

U.S. Department of the Interior |            U.S. Geological Survey           	URL: *http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/of/2013/1176/index.html*            Page Contact Information: GS Pubs Web Contact           	Page Last Modified: Thursday, 23-Jan-2014 10:04:12 EST