Notice of Intent to Award

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Notice of Intent to Award: THERE IS NO FULL ANNOUNCEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS NOTICE, as this is a Notice of Intent to Award a Grant Agreement between the U.S. Fish and Cornell University for the purpose of advancing key objectives of the Golden-winged Warbler Rangewide Conservation Initiative, including conducting monitoring and research projects to assess the population status of Golden-winged Warblers (GWWA), to better understand this species' habitat associations, and to provide results that will be used in completing a comprehensive conservation strategy. Staff of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO) at Cornell University has been coordinating the GWWA conservation initiative for the past three years and have completed substantial GWWA monitoring work on both the breeding and wintering grounds over the past 10 years. Based on these experiences, the CLO staff are widely recognized as experts on monitoring, research, and conservation planning for this species and have developed extensive partner relationships over the past four years, making them uniquely qualified to conduct the work described in this announcement, in accordance with 505 DM 2. The objectives of the work to be conducted under this grant agreement are: 1) Implement the GWWA Conservation Initiative's breeding population monitoring program in the eastern United States. 2) Fill in gaps in our knowledge of wintering distribution and habitat use of Golden-winged Warblers. 3) Thoroughly analyze 4 years of existing winter survey and habitat data to refine the existing predictive habitat model for this species, and to provide results in a form that can be used to generate conservation priorities and management guidelines for wintering ground habitats and sites. Specific Description of Work: For Objective 1: Conduct Golden-winged Warbler surveys in 6 eastern States, following the spatially-balanced sampling design and field survey protocol established for the Golden-winged Warbler Conservation Initiatives breeding season monitoring program. The anticipated number of surveys to be conducted by state is as follows: In western Maryland, survey 30 points in 3 atlas quads and hopefully explore new areas that could potentially support GWWAs. In North Carolina, survey 50 points throughout the state at 10 different sites. In Pennsylvania, survey 140 points across 28 DeLorme Atlas quadrants In Tennessee, survey 45 points in the Cumberland Mountains and 5 points in adjacent southern Virginia. In West Virginia, survey 115 points in a total of 23 atlas quads throughout the state. For Objective 2: Coordinate and conduct GWWA wintering grounds surveys in three or four of the countries in Central and South America in which surveys have been previously carried out (Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica). These surveys will be designed to focus on specific sites that have been identified as key places from which additional knowledge of distribution and habitat is still required on wintering GWWAs, or where gaps in the surveys have been identified. All GWWA surveys will follow the established GWWA Wintering Ground Survey protocols that were developed by the GWWA Working Group in consultation with Richard Chandler and used in all previous years' surveys. As in previous years, all occurrence data will be entered into the Priority Migrant eBird database. These data will assure that all distribution models and all planning are carried out using the best information available. For Objective 3: Complete an analysis of all recent winter survey data (collected since 2011), and produce an updated predictive GWWA occurrence model using all historic and new data collected through the project. These results will identify habitat and locations for on-the-ground GWWA conservation actions, and to allow conservationists to focus their efforts on the key sites for these conservation actions. We will produce a list and/or map of focal areas for GWWA conservation in the wintering grounds based on the predictive model and expert input from partners.