Hanford Roadside Bird Surveys Report for Calendar Year 2012

Technical Report · Tue Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/3008941· OSTI ID:3008941

Wilde, Justin W. ^[1]; Filan, M. S. ^[1]; Johnson, S. J. ^[1]; Lindsey, C. ^[2]

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1. Mission Support Alliance, LLC, Hanford, WA (United States)
2. USDOE Richland Operations Office, WA (United States)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site is unique in that public access is restricted, there is no industrial development unrelated to the cleanup efforts, and agriculture activities do not occur within its boundaries. The Hanford Site contains a variety of bird habitats that include: basalt outcrops, riparian streams and springs, shrub-steppe on slopes and on plains, sand dunes and blowouts, and abandoned fields or disturbed areas (PNL-8942). The Hanford Site provides large expanses of habitat for shrub-steppe birds that depend on either mature stands of sagebrush or areas with at least some component of native grasses in the understory (The Nature Conservancy 1999). In some portions of the Hanford Site, human activities such as farming, urbanization, and industrial development have greatly decreased the amount of natural habitat that endemic birds require for survival. In turn, the riparian areas of the Hanford Site may have been improved by planting larger trees in homesteads and towns. These trees provide nesting locations, feeding areas and roosting spots for many species. Ultimately, human activities associated with the development of the Hanford Site, in addition to large fires that have occurred in the last 30 years, have caused the populations of a number of shrub-steppe birds to decrease, and some, such as the Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) have been locally extirpated. Federal laws including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 still provide protection of these species. Thus, monitoring is essential to not only maintain current biological information on abundance and distribution of these species on the Hanford Site, but also to ensure compliance with protection regulations and to inform future protection and management efforts.

• Research Organization: Mission Support Alliance, LLC, Hanford, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-09RL14728
• OSTI ID: 3008941
• Report Number(s): HNF--55491
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES