U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grant Award for Forest Songbird Research

In accordance with 505DM2, WVU is uniquely qualified for this project, possessing the expertise, personnel, experience and capacity necessary to carry out work throughout the Marcellus shale region. For the past 15 years, WVU has been a leader in research on effects of forest management, energy development (including coal mining and natural gas drilling), and landscape configuration on birds within the Appalachian region, often through collaborative efforts with other researchers. WVU has a long and successful record of carrying out studies on birds in the region of interest for this project, including a recent study of impacts of gas well development in Wetzel Co., West Virginia, and is ready and capable of carrying out this current project. FWS knows of no other organization with the combination of high level of qualifications, long history of experience with bird research in this region, readiness to carry out the proposed project, and cost effectiveness.

Specific tasks that WVU will perform include: characterize landscapes within the Marcellus shale region as either high or low with regard to the level of gas well development; develop a survey design to select study sites in a stratified manner within high and low gas development landscapes; establish sampling points within each selected study site; conduct bird surveys (10-min point counts) and habitat sampling at each sampling point; complete statistical analyses of the field data to model relationships between bird abundance/diversity and landscape metrics and local habitat characteristics; use results from this project to validate models that have been developed using coarser scale data in Pennsylvania; using results from this project, suggest management recommendations regarding pad shape, size, and placement that minimize impacts to forest interior birds and inform restoration of pipelines to maximize habitat improvement for the early successional suite of species.