An updated decision-support tool for grassland birds in the Avian-Impact Offset Method

The Avian-Impact Offset Method (AIOM) quantifies the displacement of grassland birds and waterfowl in response to energy infrastructure and estimates the amount of habitat needed to compensate for this loss. The AIOM converts the number of bird pairs lost owing to avian behavioral avoidance (also referred to as “displacement”) and estimates the site-specific hectares of grasslands or number of wetlands needed to compensate for displaced pairs of grassland birds or waterfowl, respectively. Decision-support tools spatially apply the AIOM to estimate grassland and wetland offsets and guide the location of offsetting measures. The revised decision-support tool for grassland birds and grassland offsets described in this report provides updated grassland layers for calculating offsets and updated bird models for guiding the location of offsetting measures.