Long-term northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) monitoring has traditionally relied upon annual call-playback and mark-resight surveys. In recent years, monitoring has shifted to passive acoustic recordings. Spotted owl population declines have historically been from the loss and fragmentation of old-growth forests, but in recent decades, competition with invasive barred owls (Strix varia), has become a bigger threat to spotted owls and resulted in further population declines in known territories. Barred owls were experimentally removed from spotted owl territories to evaluate whether spotted owls would return.

This joint USDA Forest Service, Oregon State University, & USGS paper applies an integrated multi-state site-occupancy model that was developed in order to resolve spatial mismatches from different methodologies. The model was applied to data collected on control and treatment sites associated with the experimental removal study. The new framework allows programs to maintain continuity during transitions to new monitoring procedures.

Read the paper here:

Weldy, M.J., Lesmeister, D.B., Yackulic, C.B., Appel, C.L., McCafferty, C., and Wiens, J.D., 2022, Long-term monitoring in transition—Resolving spatial mismatch and integrating multistate occupancy data: Ecological Indicators, v. 146, 109815, p. 1-12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109815

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