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2013 YELLOW RAIL MONITORING PLAN FOR LOWER

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1. esses eene nnnnn nnns sn nn seti sa sans ases ease ta aaa ssa se aa 19 3 1 Habitat use by Yellow Rail based on historical data cccccccsssssscecececessessaeceeeeseessesseaeeeeeesseesees 19 3 2 EMCLA ARU distribution relative to selected Yellow Rail habitat in 2012 ssss 30 4 Impact assessment hypotheses for determination of oilsands effects esssssseessss 35 5 2013 workplan for Yellow Rail Monitoring eeeeeseesesesee nennen enne ennemi nnne nnne 40 5 1 Spatial distribution within 7 km of roaded areas in LAPR ccssscccccecsssesscsececeeseessesseaeeeeeeseeseees 40 5 2 Determine which wetland classes support Yellow Rails ccssccccccecessessceeeeececessesseaeeeeeeseeseees 42 5 3 Does the density of Yellow Rails vary as a function of graminoid fen size ssusse 43 5 4 How many shrubs and trees in a fen are too much for the Yellow Rail eesesessss 44 5 5 Determining annual variation in Yellow Rails by revisiting known locations 45 5 6 What are the local habitat conditions required by Yellow Rails esee 46 5 61 e Plot DESEM cu eee eee adatti aeaea a Mete ee Et MS te 46 5 6 2 Habitat Identification iecit tet ere eR Ee eee a area rap Eee a rin dE 47 5 6 3 Vegetation Measurements dee dette geo tete ee oce uo bd R
2. Or gd woe To program the Song Meter directly follow the instructions in the Song Meter User Manual You will get a manual with your new Song Meter or you can download this from the Wildlife Acoustics website For both the Configuration Utility and manual programming use the following default settings unless you are instructed otherwise See Appendix X for default settings Time and Date Select Time and date from the settings menu The display will look like this Time and date 2011 Sep 16 03 00 39 Solar Sunrise Set Rise 05 52 Set 17 58 The current time and date are shown on the second line and today s calculated sunrise sunset times are shown on the bottom line The sunrise sunset times are dependent on the latitude and longitude Page 64 GPS enabled units will automatically find their location and figure out sunrise and sunset according to that All other units will need latitude and longitude entered so that they know what part of the world they are in Time and Date The time and date are not updated from the SET file created on the computer They need to be set manually for each Song Meter Select the time and date on the setting menu and use the buttons to change to the current time and date Check the time and date every time you deploy the Song Meter The date may be reset to if the timer batteries run out or for other reasons Location Settings The location settings allow you to change the File prefix geogra
3. 476609 6367620 zone 12 NAD 83 476029 6369271 zone 12 NAD 83 468913 6365910 zone 12 NAD 83 468877 6365502 zone 12 NAD 83 57 43240 111 52471 Lat Long 57 45393 111 4319 Lat Long e The decisions made by Suncor where to monitor were based on Prescott et al 2002 who reported that the habitat where Yellow Rail were most likely detected include sedge dominated wetlands The predominant wetland area on the Fort Hills lease is represented by the McClelland Lake Wetland Complex Figure 3 where sedge dominated wetland habitats occur primarily in the eastern half as represented by AWI wetland habitat types FONG open fen non patterned graminoid dominated and FOPN open fen patterned no internal lawns e n 2013 Suncor discontinued the use of call playback surveys instead contributing to the regional EMCLA program This regional program which is attempting to clarify habitat preferences for yellow rails will help guide future yellow rail monitoring in the MLWC Suncor will continue to work with the EMCLA through the 2014 season e Ateach site water depth AWI habitat descriptor moon phase wind speed and inclement weather will be recorded As a failsafe against observer ability or bias a digital recording of the survey will also be completed Finally a GPS location will be recorded for reporting purposes This is directly comparable to EMCLA methods Page 10 Yellow Rail night time survey location no detection
4. Yellow rail incidental day time detection location o Yellow Rail night time survey location Proposed MLWC cut off wall Suncor Fort Hills lease boundary Figure 3 Yellow rail survey locations detection locations and incidental detection locations from Suncor All points are from the 2001 2006 2007 2010 and 2011 field seasons Some points have been re visited in multiple years Proposed cut off wall details are included in the MLWC Operational Plan submission Shell Canada has conducted three surveys for Yellow Rail on the Muskeg River Mine lease between the years of 2008 and 2012 The 2012 survey was a habitat focused survey examining the current state of available habitat in the lease site The 2008 and 2010 surveys completed Yellow Rail focused surveys using standardized methodology Bazin and Baldwin 2007 Day time habitat surveys were also completed at each survey site Habitat surveys included collecting information on habitat characteristics such as ecosite dominant plants and water depth measurements Night time call playback surveys were completed 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise with the following listening times 5 minutes of silent listening 3 bouts of 30 seconds of call playback followed by 30 seconds of silence Page 11 2 minutes silent listening The 2008 survey had 3 survey sessions between the dates of July 8 10 July 21 23 August 5 7 Thirteen sites were surveyed and were selecte
5. be done by listening to a minimum of two midnight optimal time for Yellow Rail and two dawn choruses for each station The EMCLA stations will be listened to using resources provided by EMCLA Additional resources will be requested from each company to listen to the recordings for Yellow Rails and other species Duration of point count and listening length is to be determined by ongoing analyses but currently we are envisioning listening to three 1 minute sections from as many times of day and year as possible We will provide a budget estimate in May June for recordings based on what we learn about optimal point count length and number A Yellow Rail automated recognizer will also be created to have a computer scan all recordings for potential evidence of Yellow Rail a subset of which will be double checked by a human observer 70 yz911ie R 20 985 60 g e 50 n 40 t 9 z 30 A 9 Fa FI i a 3 E 20 10 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 Number of Visits To Site 29 Sm WSC2 Figure 20 Number of species detected per number of listening events at an ARU where a Yellow Rail was detected Page 58 The reason that we do now want to listen just for Yellow Rails is shown in Figure 20 This figure shows the number of species detected by a single ARU from July 5 to July 14 2012 at a site where a Yellow Rail was located The ARU came on every hour for 10 minutes between these dates We
6. wetland types i e bogs swamps marshes rich graminoid fens rich shrub fens and other fens and vegetation cover types i e forest shrub grass other We fit a model for covariates measured within 100 m buffers fine grain scale and one for covariates measured within 1 000 m buffers coarse grain Model fit and parsimony were compared using Akaike Information Criterion AIC where models with low AIC values have relatively good statistical fit without being overfit i e more covariates than necessary to the data Burnham and Anderson 1998 Model s that accounted for majority of AIC weight or had delta AIC 2 Burnham and Anderson 1998 were considered the top models at modelling the relationship between Yellow Rail occurrence and habitat We calculated a k fold cross validation to see how predictive each model was where the model is fit using 8096 of the data and its predictability is tested on the withheld 2096 of the data for five iterations Boyce et al 2002 Finally we calculated a spatial prediction of Yellow Rail relative probability of occurrence across the LAPR at 100 m and 1 000 m Page 20 scales and aggregated the models into a single prediction by multiplying them together DeCesare et al 2012 Not surprisingly historical Yellow Rail locations were typically located in wet soil moisture environments at fine and coarse grain scales Table 3 Yellow rail also used open habitats i e lt 31 canopy closure with l
7. 0 10 Agriculture 0 01 0 01 0 04 Conifer Forest 0 12 0 22 0 29 0 19 Broadleaf Forest 0 07 0 17 0 12 0 13 Page 24 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail Habitat Feature mean proportion of buffer standard deviation in parentheses 190imetg IQQ NOIRE Mixedwood Forest 0 01 0 02 0 05 Human Footprint Class Residential Urban 0 01 0 01 Residential Rural 0 01 0 01 Urban Rural Greenspace 0 01 0 01 High human Density Commercial Industrial 0 01 0 01 Low human Density Industrial 0 10 0 15 0 07 0 08 ek linear road rail industrial features gt 20 m lt 0 01 lt 0 01 Ro linear road rail industrial features 10 20 m 0 01 0 01 LEA urban industrial features 10 20 m 0 01 0 03 0 01 Soft linear urban industrial features 2 10 m wide 0 03 0 02 0 01 0 01 Vegetated Road 0 01 0 01 Vegetated verges and ditches along roads 0 01 0 02 0 01 Dugout 0 01 0 01 Lagoon 0 01 0 01 Reservoir 0 01 0 01 Agriculture 0 02 0 12 0 01 0 05 Pasture 0 01 0 01 Forestry Clear Cut 0 01 0 01 Source Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development 2011 Alberta Vegetation Inventory AVI Crown Polygons Government of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Available from http www srd alberta ca LandsForests VegetationInventoryStandards aspx Page 25 t Source Canadian Wetland Inventory 2012 Ducks Unlimited Available from http maps ducks ca cwi t Source Alberta landcove
8. 2 m tall and ericaceous shrubs typically present Peatland Wetlands 4 Wetland areas with predominantly mineral soils with little or no peat accumulation although some organic material may be present highly variable moisture conditions moisture codes 7 10 moving to very dynamic systems hydrodynamic factors 3 4 5 trees if present typically in higher percentage cover and heights over 10 m shrub layer typically more than 2 m tall and predominantly willows and alders little or no ericaceous SHPUDS estote cte ae A Mineral Wetlands 8 Peatland wetlands with poor to medium nutrient regimes mesic to hygric moisture conditions moisture codes 6 8 relatively species poor vegetation communities with a dominance of Sphagnum mosses and ericaceous shrubs Ledum groenlandicum Kalmia spp etc lichens commonly present 5 Peatland wetlands with medium to rich nutrient regimes hygric to hydric moisture conditions 7 10 species rich vegetation communities abundant fen and or swamp indicators See AppetldbeA ciii A a a ea PRSE Ue 7 Peatland wetlands with predominantly fibric or woody based peat accumulation Picea mariana dominant tree layer with heights 10 meters canopy closure 6096 hummocky terrain with pools of water may exist rooting zone in contact with mineral rich water ground cover a mixture of feather mosses and some Sphagnum Conifer Black Spruce Swamps Peatland wetlands with a pred
9. The goal of this part of the design is to establish inter annual variability There is a possibility that Yellow Rail are like waterfowl and may only use the boreal forest in years when wetland conditions in the prairies are poor Understanding this variation will be crucial for creating an effective monitoring plan Historical known Yellow Rail Locations i 4 T 0 165 330 660 Kilometers Figure 15 Map showing historical locations of Yellow Rails in Alberta Page 46 5 6 What are the local habitat conditions required by Yellow Rails In order to further our knowledge of Yellow Rail habitat we will be collecting habitat and vegetation measurements for each recorder location Collecting vegetation and other abiotic data will help to understand the ecology of the Yellow Rail 5 6 1 Plot Design The ARU will be the center of each habitat plot Figure 16 The habitat plot will encompass a 150 m circular area around the ARU Five sub plots will be associated with each recorder location one directly beneath the recorder and four others spaced 50 m in each cardinal direction from the recorder There cardinal sub plots will be named N E S W and C center for their respective locations A tape measure or measuring chain will be used to accurately measure the distance between the center plot and the cardinal plots Sub plots will measure 2 m x 2m t N 50 m intervals Figure 16 Layout of habitat sampling p
10. and monitoring as authorized in writing by the Director This plan and the recommendations therein are intended to partially meet the conditions above and highlights additional steps taken by these companies and others to integrate this monitoring into a larger regional framework Given the rarity of the Yellow Rail and the complex set of objectives laid forth in EPEA conditions it has become clear that achieving a rigorous analysis that fulfills all the terms of the approvals will be Page 7 difficult to achieve on a lease by lease basis To that end industry provincial and federal governments academia and the ABMI Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute recognized that monitoring of the Yellow Rail and other rare species should take place in a broader spatial and ecological context The EMCLA was the end result of this process The EMCLA has argued that it is more likely to achieve desired outcomes if efforts between companies and other monitoring groups were coordinated To that end this report also highlights the work of the EMCLA who has been working to develop coordinated protocols for monitoring other rare animal species besides the Yellow Rail 1 3 1 What has been done to fulfill EPEA approval conditions by individual companies with EPEA clauses 1 3 History of monitoring Yellow Rail in Lower Athabasca Planning Region 1 3 1 Imperial Kearl Imperial Oil conducted three rounds of yellow rail surveys in 2008 on are
11. important elements of Yellow Rail habitat Thus shrubs and trees may influence the suitability of fens as Yellow Rail habitat Within areas with some graminoid fen we will evaluate if the percentage of graminoid shrub and treed fen influences Yellow Rail occurrence The following histograms show the number of stations that will be sampled in each compositional class If this analysis reveals a pattern then we may use high resolution imagery to better document the composition structure of the fens 150 200 150 100 50 perctree Figure 14 Histograms showing proportion of graminoid shrub and treed fen within 150 metres of proposed sampling stations Page 45 5 5 Determining annual variation in Yellow Rails by revisiting known locations Of the 50 detections of the Yellow Rail with the mineable oilsands region we will place ARUs such that 45 should be detected if the birds are present this year In addition we have numerous other stations in the McClelland Lake area that have suitable survey locations Many of the other locations from FWMIS where Yellow Rails have been detected have coordinate estimates that were very coarse We have looked in detail at the Yellow Rail locations from FWMIS and placed the ARUs in areas that are likely to have Yellow Rail fen and marsh habitat that is closest to the FWMIS point All three locations where Yellow Rail were found by EMCLA will be revisited
12. monitoring boreal owls and would be able to report on whether or not shifts in owl occurrence in relationship to energy sector footprint are being observed Data from visual observations within ABMI could be used to model the response of other raptors but will NOT be part of EMCLA modeling in 2013 Issue 4 Site level Habitat Quality Yellow Rails have specific site level habitat needs They require marshy wet areas with extensive short grass like vegetation that remain wet throughout the breeding season but maintain standing water levels less than 15 cm of standing water They also require a senescent layer of grass like vegetation mostly for nesting material Stressors that affect these characteristics will reduce site level habitat quality Water level is particularly sensitive to annual climate variability but will also be affected by broader changes in hydrology due to climate change and anthropogenic water management activities The formation of a senescent layer of vegetation in agricultural habitats is affected several stressors Grazing by livestock can prevent the formation of a senescent layer by removing vegetation Robert 1997 Lundsten and Popper 2002 Grace et al 2005 Burning can be an effective tool for promoting dense graminoid growth but may destroy the senescent layer or prevent it from forming if applied too infrequently or too frequently respectively Burkman 1993 Mizell 1998 Robert et al 2000 Mowing or haying can be ef
13. to use conceptual models to identify possibly ways oilsands mining might affect Yellow Rails 4 1 Environment Canada effects pathways for Yellow Rail As part of the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring program Environment Canada has been developing preliminary effects pathways that act as conceptual models to direct future monitoring and research for the Yellow Rail The following is a direct summary of that information provided by Craig Machtans of Environment Canada Only those aspects of model relevant to the breeding grounds are shown Figure 10 Note these pathways are deemed preliminary and are under review At the end of each issue identified by Environment Canada we identify ways that the EMCLA and member companies will use previously collected data and the data from 2013 to assess impacts and mitigation strategies Issue 1 Habitat Loss Activities associated with oil and gas development in Alberta such as oilsands mines pipelines and power lines have contributed to habitat loss Oil Sands Wetlands Working Group 2000 Water management activities such as the drainage diking infilling and diversion of wetlands contribute to local habitat loss COSEWIC 2009 The resulting decrease in stand level habitat area impacts fecundity and summer growth condition Changes in stand level habitat area will have cumulative effects on landscape level changes By identifying what environmental conditions represent habitat for Yellow Rail via an extensive
14. type close versus far from disturbance so we had to match the far wetlands to those near impacted Page 12 sites There is insufficient data from this monitoring to draw any conclusions about the impacts of energy sector or habitat selection on Yellow Rails Other bird and amphibian species were detected with sufficient frequency to do such an analysis and this work will be provided in another report ARU Sample Locations in 2012 0 165 330 660 Kilometers Figure 4 Location of EMCLA ARU sampling locations in 2012 in Lower Athabasca Planning Region 2 Approaches to Yellow Rail Monitoring Many rare species are not in fact rare but simply difficult to detect Yellow Rails are virtually impossible to detect visually Their call is a metallic tic tic sound that is typically 5 syllables in length It has been described as sounding like two rocks being knocked together In guidebooks and online sources of information there is a general statement that the species almost exclusively calls during the dark night in May to July This behavior creates numerous logistical challenges for effectively monitoring this species 2 1 Playback versus passive listening To maximize detection of the Yellow Rail many studies and monitoring programs have used playback Playback involves using some type of stereo equipment i e wildlife caller to broadcast the call of the Page 13 Yellow Rail along with other nocturnal species in so
15. 2013 YELLOW RAIL MONITORING PLAN FOR LOWER ATHABASCA PLANNING REGION Prepared by Dr Erin Bayne Paul Knaga Dr Tyler Muhly Lori Neufeld and Tom Wiebe Contact Information Dr Erin Bayne Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of Alberta Mail CW 405 Biological Sciences Centre Office CCIS 1 275 Edmonton AB T6G 2bE9 Ph 780 492 4165 Fax 780 492 9234 e mail bayne ualberta ca web http www biology ualberta ca faculty erin bayne Page 2 Executive Summary 1 The Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensis is a small secretive marsh bird Concerns about the status of this species resulted in several oilsands mines in the Lower Athabasca planning region having an EPEA Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act clause to monitor Yellow Rail and mitigate impacts on this species 2 A summary of previous monitoring done to date by the various companies is provided 3 A detailed overview of the steps taken by the EMCLA Environmental Monitoring Committee of Lower Athabasca to develop new automated recording technologies for cost effectively monitoring Yellow Rails along with other species is discussed 4 Yellow Rail are rare in the region in part because of the difficultly in surveying them and getting to the habitats that they seem to prefer shrub swamp shrub fen graminoid fen and meadow marshes All known locations of Yellow Rail have been collated and models with limited predicti
16. 839 p lt Upland 0 0001 0 0001 f t z 3 751 p Emergent Marsh 0 0002 Meadow Marsh Page 32 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection Habitat Feature significant Mann Whitney test 100 meter 1 000 meter Graminoid Rich Fen z 3 522 p z 5 541 p lt Graminoid Poor Fen 0 0004 0 0001 i z 5 321 p lt Shrubby Rich Fen 0 0001 z 3 680 p Shrubby Poor Fen 0 0002 z 4 300 p lt Treed Rich Fen 0 0001 Treed Poor Fen Open Bog Shrubby Bog i t z 5 200 p lt Treed Bog 0 0001 Shrub Swamp Hardwood Swamp Mixedwood Swamp Tamarack Swamp Conifer Swamp Landcover Class Water Snow lce Rock Rubble Exposed Land Page 33 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection Habitat Feature significant Mann Whitney test 100 meter 1 000 meter Developed z 7 946 p lt z 7 081 p lt Shrubland 0 0001 0 0001 f z 4 708 p lt Grassland 0 0001 z 3 697 p Agriculture 0 0002 i z 3 822 p Conifer Forest 0 0001 Broadleaf Forest 2 i t z 4 214 p lt Mixedwood Forest 0 0001 Human Footprint Class Residential Urban Residential Rural Urban Rural Greenspace High human Density Commercial Industrial Low human Density Industrial Hard linear road rail industrial features gt 20 m wide Hard linear road rail industrial features 10 20 m wide Soft linear ur
17. Note any other important features such as gas wells roads or linear features i e seismic lines If significant features or habitat types exist beyond 150 m make note of them in the comments section If possible further details about the recorder site can be collected defining wetland types usually involves knowledge of the hydrological regime and vegetation community However this might not always be possible to see at a distance of 150 m or could be ambiguous in the immediate area The Boreal Plains Ecozone Wetland Classification Key from Ducks Unlimited Canada breaks down to wetland ecosite the various types of habitat you may encounter For this study navigate through the key to identify wetlands as best as possible based on safety time constraints and personal ability Page 48 Figure 18 Mapping wetland types onto SPOT Imagery 5 6 3 Vegetation Measurements We will also be recording certain biotic and abiotic indices at each recorder station water depth vegetation composition and horizontal cover Water Depth Measure water depth at each 50 m sub plot Place a meter stick until it hits solid soil or dense wetland vegetation e g do not penetrate the soil strata Repeat three times to create an average for each sub plot Vegetation Composition The vegetation composition will be analyzed based on different types of wetland plants Using the meter stick we will measure a 2 m x 2 m area for each sub plot Within the b
18. Open Water Sphagnum spp Sphagnum spp Sphagnum spp Brown mosses Tomenthypnum nitens Campyllium stellatum Scorpidium scorpioides Drepanocladus spp No significant species No significant species No significant species No significant species No significant species No significant species Moss Layer Composition Page 54 Table 14 Boreal Plains Ecozone Identification Key Ducks Unlimited Canada Field Guide to the Wetlands of the Boreal Plains Ecozone 1a 1b 2a 2b 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b Terrain contains cover not affected by ground or surface water or if affected only for short periods moisture codes 1 5 Dominance of upland indicators Upland i Conifer treed forests sese Conifer Upland ii Deciduous treed forests Deciduous Upland iii Mixedwood forests csse Mixedwood Upland Upland other Shrub Herb Rock Snow etc Upland Other Water table at near or above the land surface moisture codes 6 10 and some wetland indicators present sess eene ntn enne nnns Wetland 3 Wetland areas with an overall accumulation of peat Sphagnum or woody 40 cm mesic to hydric moisture conditions moisture codes 6 8 stagnant to moving hydrodynamic systems hydrodynamic regimes 1 2 trees if present are predominantly Picea mariana or Larix laricina shrub layer variable but typically less than
19. P x TT zr me TI os 5 TT 1 T 2 T T Page 76 Appendix 2 Setting and Schedules Default Song Meter Settings for Bird recording in stereo Audio Settings e Sample rate 16000 e Channels stereo e Compression Off for full size WAV files or WACO for lossless 6096 compression of files e Gain left 0 0dB e Gain right 0 0dB These settings are the same for the GPS enabled units BAT enabled units are programmed in this way if they are used for recording birds Use default BAT setting if recording bats See Appendix 2 Advanced Settings e Dig HPF Left Off e Dig HPF Right Off e Dig LPF Left Off e Dig LPF Right Off e Trg Lvl Left Off e Trg Lvl Right Off e Trg Win Left 2 0s e Trg Win Right 2 0s e Div Ratio 16 For all birds and amphibian recordings make sure that the trigger levels Trg Lvl are both set to OFF These settings do not need to be changed unless you are recording bats Default Song Meter Settings for Bat recordings left channel Mono left only Sample Song Meter Recording Schedules 10 minutes on the hour 24 hours per day stating at 8 PM 20 00 hours for maximum duration of battery 01 AT TIME 20 00 00 02 RECORD 00 10 00 03 PAUSE 00 50 00 04 GOTO LINE 02 23X 05 GOTO LINE 01 00X The 00X in line 05 means Forever which will keep the Song Meter running until the memory is full or the batteries die Page 77 You can adjust the start time simply by changing the time in line O1 If
20. S gt United Siatee Figure 1 Breeding range map of Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensis from IUCN website Note this map underestimates distribution of Yellow Rail in Alberta which has been found near Zama Lake in NW Alberta The elusive nature of the Yellow Rail it s nocturnal habits and the difficulty of conducting surveys in Yellow Rail habitat have led many authors to conclude that the species is rare and could be at risk of extinction because of human development around wetlands Rarity or human perception of rarity is driven by several factors First a species can be rare because it is found in a limited number of spatial locations This is not the case for the Yellow Rail as the range extends across most of Canada during the breeding season The general description of the habitat requirements of this species would suggest that Page 5 the conditions they require are widespread as well However the exact soil moisture level or depth of open water level is not well understood and may influence where this species is found year to year If the exact conditions the species require are ephemeral then the broad categorization of habitat classes previously used may be too coarse to be of utility in determining spatial distribution and abundance in any given year In addition the species does not always provide a reliable acoustic cue and is virtually never seen when visited by observers Combined this spatial and tempo
21. Yes No Location Moved 20m Yes No an ARU is considered moved if it is deployed more than 20 m from the designated location Comments Any comments related to the ARU location e g distance from planned point how to find them etc ARU Pick up Data Sheet Site Site number Station Station ID DATE Date of pickup TIME Time of pick up ARU ID Name on unit e g BAT 001 or EMCLA 003 or serial number for units that do not have an ID written on them SD Card Numbers numbers on the SD cards in the slots File Prefix Write the file prefix from the recorder Observer Person picking up the unit Comments anything For example are the microphones working or damaged etc If there is a file name mistake PLEASE MAKE SURE TO MAKE A NOTE AND KEEP TRACK OF IT EX LE p oum E ENSE D LE NT HI ae Mii MUR E X 8 Wh mom Ju e Y Figure 1 ARU placement on tree Maximum width of tree Microphones still are wider than the trunk thus avoiding sound shadow from the tree Page 70 Figure 2 ARU with GPS placement on tree DATA MANAGEMENT Taking care of the data is one of the most important Before you delete any data from a SD card it MUST BE BACKED UP IN TWO PLACES You will be given two hard drives one for each crew of two Save SD cards to one of the hard drives Once each crew has data downloaded onto their hard drive copy the data to the second hard drive For example back up Drive 3 to Dr
22. a 100 meter buffer 1 000 meter buffer Covariate B SE Zz p value B SE Z p value Forest 2 64 0 99 2 66 0 01 2 53 1 70 1 49 0 14 Shrub 1 10 0 90 1 23 0 22 1 89 1 81 1 04 0 30 Grass 1 77 1 56 1 13 0 26 N A N A N A N A eae i 5 41 2 18 2 48 0 01 19 9 iu PE 59 0 Shrubby Rich Fen 0 93 2 17 0 43 0 67 1 19 1 96 0 61 0 54 Poor Treed Fen 2 02 2 08 0 97 0 33 5 46 1 23 4 45 0 01 Marsh 0 26 186 0 14 0 89 1 08 3 44 0 30 0 76 Bog 2 38 2 61 0 91 0 36 5 82 4 11 1 41 0 16 Swamp 1 67 2 24 0 75 0 46 4 12 1 64 2 51 0 01 Constant 4 60 1 77 2 59 0 01 6 18 2 08 3 04 lt 0 01 Page 29 Table 6 Spearman correlation coefficients o from k fold cross validation of resource selection function models of yellow rail in northeast Alberta at two different scales 100 m and 1 000 m using all covariates global and shrub and fen cover covariates Spearman p Group 100 meter 1 000 meter 1 0 09 0 27 2 0 47 0 39 3 0 70 0 52 4 0 61 0 61 5 0 61 0 39 Average 0 46 0 44 Page 30 3 2 EMCLA ARU distribution relative to selected Yellow Rail habitat in 2012 We overlaid ARU sites from 2012 onto the Yellow Rail RSF and calculated mean RSF values within 100 m circular buffers around each site We binned ARU s by average RSF value to determine how much high selection Yellow Rail habitat we sampled in 2012 We found that we may have under sampled some many of the vegetation wetland classes at ARU sites compared to historic Yellow Rail loc
23. a ad ad N Distance m Figure 5 Detection frequency of broadcasted Yellow Rail calls at various distances by autonomous recording units ARUs and humans in Fishing Lake Saskatchewan Page 16 2 2 Factors influencing detection of Yellow Rail in the boreal forest In the Lower Athabasca Planning Region we located Yellow Rails at three wetlands in 2012 using ARUs With the listening and processing of recordings done till January 30 2013 we have found them at midnight on May 28 and June 1 at wetlands where two 10 minute point count periods have been assessed At the first site where we located Yellow Rails we have also listened to 10 full days of recordings to better understand the calling pattern of Yellow Rails What this means that at the top of every hour for 10 minutes we have determined whether or not a Yellow Rail called on a minute by minute basis for that entire time period Figure 6 shows the number of visits 10 minute period that the Yellow Rail gave at least one acoustic cue that was detected by the observer There were 10 visits at each hour over the 10 day survey period During this time of the year this Yellow Rail was detected a maximum of four times during a particular hour typically between midnight and three AM Just prior to sunrise and sunset there was a reduction in calling activity This bird sporadically called during the day but very rarely While late in the season this graph demonstrates the uncertainty of d
24. as within and adjacent to the Kearl Oil Sands Project on June 11 June 24 and July 8 Surveys were conducted using nocturnal call playback survey methods at established plots The call playback protocol used was based on methods recommended by the Canadian Wildlife Services Bazin and Baldwin 2007 The 10 minute call survey broadcast consisted of the following 1 Five minute passive listening period 2 Three 30 second playbacks of yellow rail calls separated by 30 seconds of silence and 3 Final two minute passive listening period Each plot was centrally marked with a wooden stake so that call playback and water depth measurements were conducted at the same spot for each survey round Habitat characteristics such as dominant wetlands type waterbody type and emergent vegetation and nearby ecosite phases and or wetlands types were recorded Results of the 2008 surveys are summarized below e Round 1 Five yellow rails were heard on June 11 2008 at four different plots Surveys were conducted at these plots between 00 27 and 01 23 hours One yellow rail was heard in graminoid fen FONG habitat and the rest were heard in shrubby fen FONS habitat Sedges were the dominant emergent vegetation at most of these plots e Round 2 Twelve yellow rails were heard on June 24 2008 at the same four plots as in Round 1 plus three additional plots Surveys were conducted at these plots between 01 02 and 02 40 hours One yellow rail was heard in graminoi
25. ate summer respectively and two sampled 25 km west of Cold Lake at an unimpacted site sampled in early and late summer At three of these sites we found Yellow Rails which were near Cold Lake and Lac La Biche The issues related to lower numbers of detections of Yellow Rails in 2012 is not because of the ARU technology but because of the EMCLA focus on impacted versus non impacted sites In 2013 this focus will shift so that we fully document distribution occurrence and abundance of Yellow Rails in the best habitat conditions for the Yellow Rail Page 31 Table 7 Significant differences between proportion of habitat in 100 m and 1 000 m buffers around historic yellow rail locations and autonomous recording unit ARU sites in the Lower Athabasca Planning Region LAPR of northeast Alberta Over sampling is indicated by T and under sampling by Mann Whitney test z values and p values are indicated in parenthesis Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection Habitat Feature significant Mann Whitney test 100 meter 1 000 meter Moisture Class No data blank Dry E i t Zz 4 226 p lt Mesic 0 0001 Z 4 329 p lt z 4 564 p lt Wet 0 0001 0 0001 Aquatic Canopy Closure Class 696 forest canopy closure 6 30 forest canopy closure 31 50 forest canopy closure 51 70 forest canopy closure gt 70 forest canopy closure Wetland Class t z 4 052 p t z 4
26. ations according to Mann Whitney U tests Table 7 Again this is because most of the impacted areas we studied did not have good quality Yellow Rail habitat Thus our sample was not designed to optimally find Yellow Rails but to sample as many species as possible in relation to level of human disturbance Specifically in 2012 our ARU sites sampled areas with significantly lower proportion of wet soil moisture habitats at fine and coarse grain scales z 4 329 p lt 0 0001 z 4 564 p 0 0001 respectively Instead we tended to sample near deeper open water wetlands that were more common near processing facilities We also under sampled graminoid poor fens at fine z 3 522 p 0 0004 and coarse grained z 5 541 p lt 0 0001 scales and shrubby z 5 321 p lt 0 0001 and treed rich fens z 4 300 p lt 0 0001 at coarse grained scales We may also have under sampled shrubland land cover types at fine z 7 946 p lt 0 0001 and coarse grained z 7 081 p lt 0 0001 scales Although few ARUs deployed in 2012 were located in what the RSF predicted as high probability Yellow Rail habitat five were located in areas with a mean RSF score gt 0 5 within 100m of the ARU These sites were distributed throughout the LAPR including one 15 km north of Lac La Biche at an unimpacted site i e low human footprint sampled in early summer two in the McClelland Lake fen at impacted and unimpacted sites sampled in early and l
27. ban industrial features 10 20 m wide Soft linear urban industrial features 2 10 m wide z 4 353 p lt z 4 581 p lt 0 0001 0 0001 1 z 4 003 p 0 0001 Z 4 462 p lt Page 34 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection Habitat Feature significant Mann Whitney test 100 meter 1 000 meter 0 0001 Vegetated Road s Vegetated verges and ditches along roads Dugout Lagoon Reservoir i z 3 697 p Agriculture 0 0002 Pasture Forestry Clear Cut Source Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development 2011 Alberta Vegetation Inventory AVI Crown Polygons Government of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Available from http www srd alberta ca LandsForests VegetationInventoryStandards aspx t Source Canadian Wetland Inventory 2012 Ducks Unlimited Available from http maps ducks ca cwi t Source Alberta landcover classification map 2012 Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Available from http abmi ca abmi home home jsp Source Alberta human footprint classification map 2012 Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Available from http abmi ca abmi home home jsp Page 35 4 Impact assessment hypotheses for determination of oilsands effects Part of the EPEA process is to determine effects of oilsands development on Yellow Rail There is insufficient data to do this currently A first step in determining impacts is
28. casionally bogs To develop the most robust model possible it is important to confirm that other habitat classes do not have Yellow Rails In addition several of the other questions posed below require that these other habitat classes are sampled These categories were derived from Ducks Unlimited s Enhanced Wetland Classification and were validated by looking at Spot Imagery and Alberta Vegetation Inventory where available Table 8 Approximate number of stations that have either been surveyed or are likely to be surveyed for Yellow Rails with ARUs within each of the Duck s Unlimited habitat classes from the Enhanced Wetland Inventory DU Habitat Class N 10 i 14 1 6 3 4 7 0 5 Page 43 5 3 Does the density of Yellow Rails vary as a function of graminoid fen size The habitat where Yellow Rails has been found most often in the LAPR is graminoid fens To test whether graminoid fen size influences Yellow Rail density we have sampled a range of graminoid fen sizes This figure shows the distribution of areas of graminoid fen habitat that might be sampled The number of ARU stations in each area class is shown 20 Inareal Figure 13 Histogram showing the number of stations that will be within graminoid fens of certain sizes note units are In transformed 1 Page 44 5 4 How many shrubs and trees in a fen are too much for the Yellow Rail Given the literature on Yellow Rails grasses and sedges are
29. d fen FONG habitat and the rest were heard in shrubby fen FONS habitat e Round 3 Fourteen yellow rails were heard on July 8 2008 at eight different plots Of the eight plots yellow rails were heard at five of the seven previous detection locations plus three additional plots Surveys were conducted at these plots between 23 20 and 01 25 hours Five yellow rails were heard in graminoid fen FONG habitat and the rest were heard in shrubby fen FONS habitat Sedges were the dominant emergent vegetation at all these plots e All of these observations are part of the EMCLA database used for habitat modeling Page 8 The results of the 2008 yellow rail monitoring were submitted to Alberta Environment on November 12 2008 On March 16 2009 Imperial Oil was issued a letter by Alberta Environment indicating that the report submitted completes the requirements of subsection 6 1 86 your EPEA Approva 1 3 2 Suncor Fort Hills e May 2009 Alberta Environment updated the Suncor Fort Hills approval 151469 00 01 as amended and requiring monitoring and mitigation plans for Yellow Rails as outlined in clause 6 1 85 This clause stated The approval holder shall provide a plan or participate in the development of a plan for the monitoring and mitigation of the Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensis by December 31 2009 to the satisfaction of the Director unless otherwise authorized in writing by the Director e Suncor sub
30. d non randomly using GIS habitat layers for the Muskeg River Mine Expansion Areas Shrubby and graminoid fens were chosen as the focus of this survey No yellow rail were detected during this survey though timing of the surveys and noise conditions may have influenced these results The results from this survey were submitted to Alberta Environment on January 20 2008 with Alberta Environment responding on October 13 2009 with recommendations for additional surveying and refinement of methods The 2010 survey also had 3 survey sessions on June 10 12 June 18 19 and June 30 July 1 Twenty sites were surveyed on the Muskeg Rive Mine Lease Four habitat types were surveyed graminoid fens shrubby fens marsh and shallow open water The results from the 2010 Yellow Rail surveys were 1 Round 1 June 10 12 2 Yellow Rail detected on two different sites 17 sites surveyed all detections in graminoid fens 2 Round 2 June 18 19 8 Yellow Rail detected on three sites including the two from Round 1 19 sites surveyed all detections in graminoid fens 3 Round3 June 30 July 1 9 Yellow Rail detected on four sites including the sites from Round 1 and 2 19 sites surveyed all detections in graminoid fens The results from the 2010 survey were submitted to Alberta Environment on May 31 2011 Alberta Environment responded March 12 2012 The 2012 survey was a habitat based survey aimed at documenting the current status of Yellow Rail habitat in th
31. ding season would be the primary route for incidental take In addition removing shrubs or mowing grass on wellpads and pipelines may also result in incidental take Policies are in place to minimize these clearing activities by energy companies but each company will undertake a review of their policies and how this pertains to Yellow Rails Much of the habitat that is thought to be used by Yellow Rails is too wet to safely operate during the breeding season However the amount of clearing and or reclearing during the Yellow Rail breeding season could be reported by individual companies Collisions for Yellow Rails are NOT something that will be addressed by EMCLA Non Breeding Season Pathways Yellow Rail Includes Oil Sands Areas eggs broods young produced pair success Trend Distribution Esg Hatchling Fledgling vov Adult Impacts on habitat narrow belt of coastal wetland habitat D Impacts on habitat habitat needsvery a Page 39 Breeding Season Pathways Impacts Stressors Drivers HABITAT xoded ASSOCIATION Stand level habitat area SS Landscape level changes 3 Modification reconfiguration of wetlands Alteration of hydrologic regimes Linear clearing Reclamation to alternate wetland types A Water leve remains wet i hobitat quolity Nest materials senescent T Vegetation j haying layer of vegetation Siltification Acidification LA a
32. e Muskeg River Mine Expansion lease The surveys were completed on July 20 with 13 wetlands visited to determine wetland status Of the 13 sites chosen for the survey only 10 were visited due to accessibility constraints Seven wetlands did not differ in habitat descriptions from previous surveys The remaining 3 wetlands had been de watered as per Shell Canada s development of the Muskeg River Expansion area 1 3 4 2012 EMCLA Industrial impact on wetland animals project In 2012 the EMCLA monitored a total of 167 wetlands across the LAPR Lower Athabasca Planning Region Figure 4 Wetlands were clustered within 29 sites 15 of these sites were within the bounds of existing SAGD or oilsands leases and 14 were within control sites A site was an area approximately a township in size The control sites had a smaller oil and gas footprint at the township scale while the leases were the most developed areas At each site between 4 and 6 wetlands were sampled Wetlands were chosen mainly in terms of the level of human impact within varying radii around the wetland This meant that the wetlands closest to central processing facilities of SAGD and oil sands areas were the central point of the sampled site At our control sites we tried to match the types of wetlands sampled to those within the SAGD or oilsands areas that we had to sample Many of these wetlands were not optimal Yellow Rail habitat This was because our objective was to match wetland
33. e for each company If there is a desire to move the ARUs more frequently more sites can be added and or companies could take over monitoring so of the sites on the north and east side of McLelland Lake allowing EMCLA crews to spend more time sampling in other areas EMCLA will provide training to all parties using ARU and will provide a coordinated location for storage of all the sound recordings and processed information That system is currently being built and will be provided as soon as it is available An example of the system can be found at http pumilio sourceforge net At this site EMCLA will store all recordings spatially map them and have a database linked to the recordings that tracks what animals were detected when A secure online database already exists for 2012 data and all information will be entered there for 2013 surveys We are currently exploring the optimal length of point counts to conduct for Yellow Rail but the way we currently listen to recordings makes it unimportant how this is done The reason being we recorded when each individual of each species is detected every minute for 10 minutes We then listen to different times of day and times of year to detect as many individual and or species as possible We expect that we probably will listen to 3 minutes of data from at least 4 time periods to detect as many Yellow Rails as possible We also are building an automatic computer recognizer that will scan all of recordings for Y
34. ea but ae godes ova e aede pe aote ud 48 6 How sampling Yellow Rail habitat can improve biodiversity monitoring eeeeeeeeeeees 57 7 Expectations for individual companies amp EMCLA ssseseeeeeeeeeenene nennen nennen nnns nnns nnne an 59 Appendix 1 Instructions for ARU usage ssssssssssseseeeeenee nennen enne nennnn nnns nennen nhan iss s esee seria assa asse nean 62 Appendix 2 Setting and Schedules sessi eene nennen nnne tern nana sss s nne ti asas asses enne an 76 rez inb uu Cited tA RIT 78 Page 4 1 Background Information on Yellow Rail monitoring in Alberta 1 1 Life History of Yellow Rail The Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensis is a small secretive marsh bird of the family Rallidae According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN Red List of Threatened Species the Yellow Rail is a species of least concern because of its extremely large range Figure 1 gt 20 000 km While population estimates are speculative at best the IUCN reports a worldwide population of 10 000 25 000 individuals Trend data is also limited but according to IUCN is stable BirdLife International 2012 Descriptions of the habitat for this species are wet sedge meadows in prairie systems salt marshes in areas near the ocean and graminoid fens and grassy marshes in boreal systems Bookhout 1995 PLAIN
35. ealed so that water cannot get into the Song Meter case The microphone ports are particularly important because a loose part will lead to a loose microphone connection and excess static in the recording Check that the wiring to the batteries is intact and that all button and switches are working On newer models check that the white switches on the switch board are in the correct configuration On older SM2 units check that all small black jumpers are in place These serve the same purpose as the switch board in the newer models and can come loose b Loading ARU recording schedule Generally you will be given a pre made SET file to upload from the SD card in slot A Always check that you are using the correct SET file and or settings for the particular project that you are deploying the ARU for You will always have to enter the file prefix see Setting the File prefix below every time that you move the ARU to a new location Make sure that you always have the correct file prefix because this is what uniquely identifies the recording from that location An error in file naming will result in lost or incorrect data if it is not corrected Put the SD card with the SET files in Slot A will not load from another slot Wake up unit see instructions above Navigate to Utilities page Select Load Songmeter Set from A Select correct SET file from SD card in slot A Press Select button again The Song Meter set file will now load
36. ecrease in stand level habitat area impacts fecundity and summer growth condition Changes in stand level habitat area will have cumulative effects on landscape level changes The cluster design used in 2013 will allow multi scale evaluation of local stand and landscape level variation in land use as a factor influencing Yellow Rail habitat use within wetlands This will be done by pooling data from multiple ARUs to conduct site and cluster level analyses to test landscape level responses Areas are being sampled in agricultural landscapes to determine how complete landscape Page 36 conversion influences Yellow Rails when the wetland remains Density and occurrence of Yellow Rail will be compared to similar wetland types surrounded by forest Variation in total human footprint does exist around these wetlands but there is not an optimized human footprint gradient simply because many areas with high energy sector footprint do not have suitable Yellow Rail habitat We will NOT be evaluating any element of Yellow Rail fecundity etc This requires a far better understanding of Yellow Rail abundance and distribution in the boreal forest to warrant the effort Issue 3 Landscape level Changes Several landscape level changes will affect Yellow Rail habitat Modification or reconfiguration of wetlands across the landscape may result from the cumulative changes in stand level habitat area Alteration of hydrologic regimes may occur concurrently as well a
37. ector strength 0 411 Figure 7 Mean number of minutes per survey period 10 minutes when the Yellow Rail at site 29 WS2 called as a function of time of day Only survey periods where the bird was known to have vocalized are shown The number of survey periods where vocalization rate could be estimated are shown beside each bar Page 18 Figure 8 Site 29 WSC2 Sampling location where Yellow Rail was monitored for 10 days between July 4 and 12 2012 High resolution imagery from Bing Maps Ikonos 1m resolution from GeoEye Page 19 3 Where should we sample Equally important as to how to sample is to determine where to place recorders to optimize learning and maximize detection of Yellow Rail The following section rationalizes our decisions 3 1 Habitat use by Yellow Rail based on historical data In 2011 the EMCLA collated all known Yellow Rail locations in Alberta These have been integrated with our new detections to evaluate habitat use and selection The purpose was to test whether we could accurately predict Yellow Rail occurrences using remotely sensed habitat data and whether we adequately sampled likely Yellow Rail habitat as part of the 2012 monitoring program We used 25 historic Yellow Rail locations that were accurate to 1 km and 20 years old This was to ensure we accurately measured habitat in time and space at historic locations We measured habitat within 100 m fine grained scale and 1 000 m coarse
38. ecure the ARU in place SECTION 1 Testing and Programming a Testing a Song Meter Newly purchased Song Meters should be tested upon delivery to check for any factory defects in the wiring or external construction They should also be tested before and after every deployment The following steps allow you to test quickly if a Song Meter is recording correctly e Put batteries in the unit and turn the power on e The LCD screen should show that the unit is waking up and display the date time software version and the status of the SD cards e Putonecard in slot A e Connect microphones to each port on the outside e Doatestrecording manually initiate recording by pressing the up and down buttons at the same time e Once the unit is recording press the select button to toggle to the screen showing the gain levels The gain bars and numbers should be similar Talking directly into the left or right microphone should cause them to peak on that side e Stop the test recording by pressing the back button Any substantial differences from the average indicate an issue with the microphone connection or the wiring or switches See section on Troubleshooting for how to address some of these Any microphones Page 63 or units that are not recording cleanly should not be deployed in the field until the issue is corrected See Appendix 1 for examples of good and bad recordings Other things to look at Check that all external ports are tight and s
39. eese eene Mixedwood Swamp Page 56 EMCLA YELLOW RAIL HABITAT DATA SHEET OBSERVERS DATE I TIME NORTHING EASTING TEMP C WIND SPEED PRECIPITATION CLOUD COVER HABITAT INDEX Conifer Upland UCN Deciduous Upland UDC Mixedwood Upland UMX Other Upland UOT Treed Bog BTR Shrubby Bog BSH Open Bog BOP Treed Poor Fen FPT Shrubby Poor Fen FPS Graminoid Poor Fen FPG Treed Rich Fen FRT Shrubby Rich Fen FRS Graminoid Rich Fen FRG Shallow Open Water WAT Emergent Marsh MEM Meadow Marsh MMD Shrub Swamp SSH Hardwood Swamp SHR Mixedwood Swamp SMX Tamarack Swamp STM Conifer Swamp SCN COMMENTS SUBPLOT MEASUREMENTS HORIZONTAL COVER cm 50 cm 100 cm 50 cm 100 cm 50 cm 100 cm 50 cm 100 cm 50 cm 100 cm VEGETATION COMPOSITION with 96 cover with each species Figure 19 Field datasheet for recording habitat conditions around ARUs in wetlands Page 57 6 How sampling Yellow Rail habitat can improve biodiversity monitoring At one of the Yellow Rail sites we monitored for 10 days in 2012 we detected an addition 58 species Yellow Rails are uncommon While ARU will detect them if they are present sampling exclusively for Yellow Rails is a poor use of valuable monitoring resources given the costs of getting to these sites Thus we chose to use ARU for Yellow Rail so that we could also survey for all acoustic species This will
40. elect button to go to setting options Scroll down to Location Select File Prefix Change the file prefix to the site and station name using this format Press select twice at the end of the file name to save the changes Use the Back button to navigate back to the start up screen Press Up and Down button simultaneously to do a test recording and check the microphones Press Select button during the recording to look at gain levels for left and right microphones Numerical and visual gain indicators should be identical when you speak in front of the recorder Press Back button to stop test recording Press the Wake Exit Button to put the unit in standby It should show a message saying Going to sleep until lt date and time gt before it shuts off Date and time should correspond to the start time programmed into the SET file This will vary depending on the recording schedule that a specific species or project requires 2011 Sep 16 13 34 12 Going to sleep until 2011 Sep 16 05 30 00 Deactivating the ARU at pickup 1 Soy Ur dou m Open the lid Press the Wake button Use Select button to leave start up screen Scroll down to Utilities Select Select Go to Sleep The unit will turn off completely and stop recording Then turn the power switch to the off position If the ARU is mid recording when you arrive you can either wait for the recording to finish or press
41. ellow Rails that will then be double checked by a human observer Page 60 Locations of Yellow Rail sampling in Oil Sands area 80 Kilometers Page 61 Page 62 Appendix 1 Instructions for ARU usage EMCLA Autonomous Recording Unit ARU DeploymentProtocol Including testing activation deactivation field deployment and data management Overview of ARU s Autonomous recording units ARU s are used to remotely survey a variety of species such as birds amphibians and bats On this project the brand of ARU that we are using is the Song Meter made by Wildlife Acoustics The units are designed to record autonomously for long periods of time to conduct bird surveys While most of our Song Meters are the SM2 model there are 3 other models that you may have to deploy The basic operation of all models is the same but there are a few programming differences to be aware of This protocol will walk you through all aspects of using Song Meters from programing to field deployment and data storage The field part of this protocol focusses on the forest and wetland ARU deployments for the EMCLA It does not cover project specific sampling design or site selections Always check these details with your project supervisor so the deployment locations are correct for the project you are working on Some adjustments in mounting design may be required For example wetland areas do not have trees and you may have to use a stake or other method to s
42. ention Recordings are brought to the lab and processed by experts in more controlled conditions Numerous times of day and dates can then be processed to see if the species is present As the EMCLA objective was to monitor more than just Yellow Rails we conducted a study where we compared probability of observation of Yellow Rail and other species using playback human based passive listening versus ARUs in 2012 Details on other species detected are described in a different report Having a person visit a station and use playback we found no Yellow Rails in 2012 at 114 survey locations in the Lower Athabasca region At 9596 of these stations we also had automated recorders Yellow Rails were detected at three locations via ARUs thus far Direct comparison of the efficacy of recorders versus playback was not possible in the LAPR as a result of the limited number of rails detected Dr Kiel Drake from Bird Studies Canada a collaborator on the project has done a direct comparison of the efficacy of recorders versus ARUs in an area with a high density of Yellow Rails however Near Fishing Lake Saskatchewan surveys for Yellow Rails have been conducted at 76 stations in 2011 or 2012 Human conducted surveys occurred during 22 May 12 July ARU samples were drawn from recordings made 18 May 12 July At each station two to five nocturnal human conducted surveys were made between 22 00 03 00 hrs A total of 323 surveys were completed for an average of 4 sur
43. etermining Yellow Rail presence based on a single 10 minute survey done by a person When time permits the same process will be done for the other two locations to more fully understand variation in calling behavior which will further optimize the amount of listening needed to detect Yellow Rails o o o o Midnight oo 6 00 PM 6 00 AM Mean time 00 48 AM Vector strength 0 584 Figure 6 Number of times from a maximum of 10 survey periods the Yellow Rail at site 29 WSC2 produced a vocalization that was detected at each hour of the day Page 17 In an effort to maximize the number of time periods listened to at Fishing Lake SK Drake used 1 minute survey periods spread across multiple times of day and date The rationale is that clumpy calling behavior i e periods of time when bird calls regularly are interspersed with long periods of silence may be easier to detect During the 10 minute periods when this Yellow Rail was in range of the ARU and was known to have called at least once he called during 4596 of the one minute intervals listened to range 1 10 SD 3 0 In other words there were calls interspersed with silence within the 10 minute intervals as well The number of calls given by this bird when he was singing was also higher at midnight indicating the calling rate also varies with time of day Figure 7 oo0000000 A 2o00 ic o o o o 0000000000 1 mean time for highest calling rate 1 53 AM v
44. fX incidental take buildings structures mowers harvesters fences cats pesticides Figure 10 Conceptual model representing the pathways of effects of core hypotheses affecting population status of Yellow Rail Numbers correspond to issues described above From Nelitz M A Hall C Wedeles and C S Machtans 2012 Effects pathways for Biodiversity monitoring in the oilsands area species models Unpublished report prepared for Environment Canada by ESSA Technologies Ltd Vancouver BC Page 40 5 2013 workplan for Yellow Rail Monitoring The primary objectives for 2013 are to understand 5 1 Spatial distribution within 7 km of roaded areas in LAPR The map below shows the general areas where sampling for Yellow Rails will occur to assess the spatial distribution of the species Models that take into account spatial location will be created via trend surface analyses and spatial autocorrelation statistics Figure 11 Locations of 2012 ARU and proposed 2013 Yellow Rail sampling sites in Lower Athabasca planning region The locations shown in map above were identified as being the best potential Yellow Rail habitat in the LAPR based on overlaying our RSF model and by looking for graminoid fens and marshes There Page 41 are 199 proposed sites within 47 clusters on the map There are 4sites per cluster Each site has 5 stations Clusters are either a large wetland complex or a series of smaller complexes w
45. fective tools for maintaining Yellow Rail habitat but if applied inappropriately it can be responsible for the removal of the senescent layer Robert et al 2000 Changes in site level habitat quality contribute to changes in stand level habitat quality which affects fecundity and summer growth condition Page 37 As described in issue 1 we will validate the water depths required by Yellow Rail via our on the ground habitat sampling see below Grazing is deemed irrelevant to energy sector impacts and will not be addressed Mowing and haying are not likely appropriate mitigation tools for boreal environments Burning as a mitigation option is possible but when and why it would be applied needs further evaluation We will not explore this directly Instead it is proposed that in 2014 an additional project looking at how YERA respond to natural fires within various fen types be evaluated Identifying the fen types most likely to be used by YERA must be done first however Issue 5 Degradation of Wetlands Because Yellow Rail is dependent on wetland habitats stressors that result in the degradation of wetlands will contribute to a decrease in stand level habitat quality The wetlands used by Yellow Rails are susceptible to siltification and acidification Cohen and Kost 2007 Water management activities such as water extraction or diversion associated with oil and gas developments especially oilsands extraction can contribute to degradation of s
46. footprint e In January 2012 an internal draft Yellow Rail monitoring plan was developed but not submitted e As reported in the EIA and supplemental information provided by the Fort Hills Energy Corporation FHEC regarding the Fort Hills Oil Sands Project FHOSP in 2002 and subsequently in the Mine Amendment Application July 27 2007 and the correspondence of February 2 2011 Yellow Rail monitoring has occurred within the Fort Hills Lease area Specifically in 2001 two yellow rail were incidentally recorded during breeding bird surveys Further in 2006 and 2007 using rail specific surveys following methods in Prescott et al 2002 no Yellow Rail were detected Then in 2010 rail specific surveys were employed to detect one yellow rail following methods in Bazin and Baldwin 2007 Finally in 2011 breeding passerine point count surveys Page 9 detected two yellow rail All the above mentioned yellow rail were detected in the McClelland Lake Wetland Complex Details for all these detections are included in Table 1 below and in Figure 1 Table 1 Historical detection details for yellow rail on the Fort Hills lease Method Employed Day time point count incidental Day time point count incidental Bazin and Baldwin 2007 Bazin and Baldwin 2007 Day time point count incidental Day Time Point count incidental Date Detected 6 July 2011 6 July 2011 15 July 2010 15 July 2010 2001 2001 Location easting northing
47. formation in later If for some reason you end up at a pick up or deployment without your datasheets use your field notebook to record the correct information and fill out the correct datasheets once you get to your truck or camp location Never think that you are too busy or pressed for time to fill out datasheets correctly The datasheets are part of the job and need to be completely correctly Deployment Datasheet Site Number Site number or other official site descriptor Station Name of station that you are deploying the ARU Project dependent Date Date ARU is deployed Time The time of day the ARU is deployed Easting and Northing Write down co ordinates from the GPS Surveyor Name initials of observer Page 69 ARU ID Serial number unless there is another identifier on the unit The serial number sticker is on the bottom of the Song Meter File Prefix Latitude and Longitude Use the location of the pre mapped point unless you need to move the ARU more than 20 m from this location BE SURE THAT YOU CHANGE THE FILE PREFIX EVERYTIME THAT YOU DEPLOY THE ARU AT A NEW LOCATION CHANGE THE FILE PREFIX BEFORE YOU DO THE TEST RECORDING ARU Battery Status Notes on when the batteries were checked and or replaced For example you could note that the batteries where used only 5 days prior in which case they will last another 15 SD Card Number Fill in the SD card numbers for slots Number of card E g 001 or 157 Test Recording Done
48. grained scale circular radius buffers at each historic Yellow Rail location and ARU site The fine grained scale represents the immediate wetland type used by Yellow Rail whereas the coarse grained scale may represent the wetland complex used by Yellow Rail which is also important to Yellow Rail habitat selection Bazin and Baldwin In future models we will change this to 150 metres given that this seems to be the distance over which Yellow Rails can be heard The habitat covariates that we measured were vegetation cover type Castilla et al 2012 wetland type Ducks Unlimited 2012 moisture regime AESRD 2011 canopy cover density AESRD 2011 human footprint type ABMI 2012 We summarized average values of each habitat covariate within buffers and conducted a Mann Whitney U test with Bonferroni corrected p values i e p 0 0007 to compare whether habitat types sampled at ARU sites were statistically different from habitat at historic sites We then created a Yellow Rail spatial distribution model using a resource selection function RSF approach Boyce and MacDonald 1999 Manly et al 2002 We compared habitat covariates measured at historic locations to habitat measured at wetlands i e minimum proportion of lowland area was 0 5 at randomly sampled locations within the LAPR i e at 5 km intervals We modelled Yellow Rail occurrence using logistic regression and included different combinations of covariates including
49. have recorded which species were detected within each 1 minute interval on all of these recordings In other words we sampled the entire acoustically detectable species at this site across nine 24 hour periods This figure shows the cumulative number of species detected You can see in the graph a series of flat visits where no new species were detected These generally were in the afternoon i e after 12 PM and before 7 PM The flat sections are getting longer with more visits which indicates that fewer new species are being added with each visit BUT as the red line indicates the rate of accumulation has not plateaued as would be expected if the entire species pool had been detected After 1640 minutes of observation 27 hours we have not recorded all the species that are likely to be at that this location and giving an audible cue at this time of year This curve suggests that at least seventy or more species of animals could be monitored by using a single ARU at Yellow Rail stations Page 59 7 Expectations for individual partners amp EMCLA This map shows the proposed and already sampled areas for Yellow Rails within the mineable oilsands region Orange triangles are areas where ARUs were placed in 2012 Red triangles are areas the EMCLA crews will try to get to Green circles are areas where companies are expected to place and move ARUs to Table 15 REMOVED provides a detailed list of habitat conditions spatial location and schedul
50. idered within the context that it is not a highly predictive model Our RSF model indicates high probability Yellow Rail habitat in the central portion of the LAPR particularly in the Birch Mountains Wildland area and north of Fort McMurray nearby and to the north of McClelland Lake Other areas that may support Yellow Rail include to the north of the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range CLAWR and the south central part of the LAPR between Lac La Biche and Cold Lake Page 21 Table 3 Proportion of habitat in 100 m and 1 000 m buffers around historic yellow rail locations in the Lower Athabasca Planning Region LAPR of northeast Alberta Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection P 100 meter HORS Moisture Class No data blank 0 01 0 02 0 05 Dry 0 01 0 01 Mesic 0 03 0 10 0 15 0 21 Wet 0 93 0 22 0 80 0 28 Aquatic 0 01 0 01 Canopy Closure Class 696 forest canopy closure 0 51 0 32 0 33 0 18 6 30 forest canopy closure 0 31 0 30 0 26 0 18 31 50 forest canopy closure 0 05 0 10 0 16 0 12 51 7096 forest canopy closure 0 09 0 18 0 18 0 13 gt 70 forest canopy closure 0 01 0 02 0 03 0 06 Dominant Forest Species No forest species 0 51 0 32 0 33 0 18 White Spruce 0 04 0 19 0 03 0 06 Black Spruce 0 18 0 20 0 30 0 19 Lodgepole Pine 0 01 0 01 Jack Pine 0 02 0 10 0 04 0 13 Balsam Fir 0 01 0 01 Page 22 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detect
51. ile Maianthemum trifolium Menyanthes trifoliata Sarracenia purpurea Scheuchzeria palustris Rich Fen Drosera spp Equisitem fluviatile Galium spp Maianthemum trifolium Menyanthes trifoliata Parnassia palustris Potentilla palustris Sarracena purpurea Scheuchzeria palustris Tofeldia glutinosa Hardwood Swamp Corylus cornuta Equisitem fluviatile Galium spp Rubus spp Ribes spp Salix spp Cornus stolonifera Mixedwood Equisitem fluviatile Galium spp Swamp Tamarack Swamp Caltha palustris Conifer Swamp Caltha palustris Cornus canadensis Equisitem fluviatile Galium spp Shrub Swamp Caltha palustris Equisitem fluviatile Galium spp Potentilla palustris Marsh Free Floating Floating Leaved Submerged Emergent Nuphar variegatum Nymphaea Potamogeton richardsonii Potamogeton Sparganium eurycarpum Typha tetragona Lemna minor Lemna zosteriformis Potamogeton praelongus latifolia Acorus calamus Scirpus trisulca Spirodela polyrhiza Potamogeton pectinatus Potamogeton acutus Scirpus validus Juncus spp Potamogeton natans Potamogeton friesii Potamogeton vaginatus Sagittaria cuneata Calla palustris gramineus Polygonum amphibium Potamogeton filiformis Potamogeton Alisma plantago aquatica Sparganium angustifolium Brasenia pusillus Myriophyllum spicatum var Menyanthes trifoliata Potentilla schreberi exalbescens Ceratophyllum demersum palustris Scheuchzeria palustris Ranunculus aquatilus var capillaceus Ranunculus circi
52. ion Pensions E 100 meter pone Tamarack 0 21 0 30 0 19 0 16 Trembling Aspen 0 01 0 02 0 07 0 10 Balsam Poplar 0 01 0 01 Paper Birch 0 01 0 01 Sub dominant Forest Species No forest species 0 77 0 30 0 65 0 20 White Spruce 0 01 0 03 0 03 Black Spruce 0 09 0 19 0 11 0 11 Lodgepole Pine 0 01 0 01 Jack Pine 0 01 0 01 0 03 Balsam Fir 0 01 0 01 Tamarack 0 09 0 14 0 13 0 08 Trembling Aspen 0 01 0 04 0 02 0 03 Balsam Poplar 0 01 0 01 0 06 Paper Birch 0 01 0 01 Wetland Class Upland 0 07 0 04 0 18 0 20 Emergent Marsh 0 01 0 07 0 01 0 04 Meadow Marsh lt 0 01 lt 0 01 Graminoid Rich Fen 0 12 0 25 0 05 0 09 Graminoid Poor Fen 0 02 0 05 0 02 0 02 Shrubby Rich Fen 0 16 0 20 0 12 0 13 Page 23 Buffer radius around historic yellow rail detection Ponca E 100 meter 1 000 mete Shrubby Poor Fen 0 0 01 Treed Rich Fen 0 23 0 23 0 21 0 13 Treed Poor Fen 0 18 0 17 0 23 0 13 Open Bog 0 0 01 Shrubby Bog 0 01 0 03 0 01 Treed Bog 0 04 0 13 0 03 0 09 Shrub Swamp 0 12 0 22 0 06 0 07 Hardwood Swamp 0 01 0 01 0 02 Mixedwood Swamp 0 01 0 04 0 01 0 02 Tamarack Swamp 0 03 0 12 0 01 0 02 Conifer Swamp 0 01 0 04 0 04 Landcover Class Water 0 01 0 02 0 05 Snow lce 0 01 0 01 Rock Rubble 0 01 0 01 Exposed Land 0 04 0 19 0 01 0 04 Developed 0 02 0 08 0 01 0 04 Shrubland 0 72 0 35 0 48 0 25 Grassland 0 03 0 11 0 04
53. ith a few kilometers of each other A site is identical in spacing to the ABMI sampling grid 600 meters to the far corners and will use 5 ARUs to determine the abundance of Yellow Rails Each station has one ARU that will be in place from 7 14 days depending on the number of people available to move the ARUs Clusters were selected by finding areas in the LAPR that the RSF predicted might be suitable and that had graminoid fens or emergent meadow marshes Building from these specific wetlands we then selected sites within a cluster that varied the types of wetlands that could be sampled to address the questions that follow Clusters are being monitored by EMCLA staff Devon Nexen Suncor Shell and Imperial The schedule is described in detail in the Appendix for the Suncor Shell and Imperial 1 Example cluster of Yellow Rail sampling areas Each group of 5 is considered a site and will be sampled simultaneously Each site will be sampled for 7 14 days ARUs will be moved between sites within a cluster over a period of two months p_k pC a A 0 0 75 15 3 Kilometers Figure 12 Example of cluster site and station design used by EMCLA to monitor wetland animals Page 42 5 2 Determine which wetland classes support Yellow Rails At the point level the sites selected emphasize fen habitat which is where most Yellow Rails have been detected in Alberta However they also have been found in shrub swamp marshes and oc
54. ities Changes in predator communities may have direct impact on summer survival or fecundity through increased predation or nest predation or impacts on fecundity and summer growth condition through a reduction in stand level habitat quality See our response via issue 3 In addition companion studies are being done on mammal response to energy sector development via remote cameras These data could be used to evaluate risks from predators The technology used to survey Yellow Rail will also allow detection of Marsh Wrens and Red winged Blackbirds Nest searching for Yellow Rail will NOT be done Issue 7 Disruption of Activities Although little evidence exists Yellow Rail is believed to be intolerant of human disturbance COSEWIC 2009 Therefore human intrusion into Yellow Rail habitat whether for recreational or industrial purposes is likely to result in disruption of normal activities For example all terrain vehicles ATVs can disturb wetland birds NBDNR 2008 Grazing livestock can disturb Yellow Rail activities Robert 1997 Agricultural operations e g mowing cropping and haying that do not result in incidental take may still disturb Yellow Rail Disruption of activities could influence fecundity or summer growth condition depending on what activities are disrupted Page 38 We will evaluate whether noise and light levels at the sites surveyed influence the occurrence and or abundance of Yellow Rail This will be done by e
55. ittle forest cover perhaps with the exception of some black spruce and tamarack Yellow Rail primarily occurred in graminoid shrubby and treed rich fens as well as treed poor fens and shrub swamps to a lesser extent RSF models at fine and coarse grained scales that included both wetland and landcover covariates ranked highest according to AIC scores Table 4 Proportion of shrubland forest and grass landcover types were retained as landcover covariates and proportion of graminoid rich fen shrubby rich fen poor treed fens marsh bog and swamp were retained as wetland covariates in a comparison of landcover and wetland sub models using AIC Yellow Rail selected non forested areas at fine grained scales poor treed fens and swamps at coarse grained scales and graminoid rich fens at both scales Table 5 However RSF models were on average poor predictors of Yellow Rail occurrence at fine Pavg 0 46 and coarse grained Pawg 0 44 scales according to k fold cross validation Table 6 Despite producing poor predictive models of Yellow Rail occurrence we nevertheless applied our RSF model across the LAPR Fig 9 We caution that our RSF model should not be widely applied to predict Yellow Rail occurrence particularly for mitigating anthropogenic impacts on Yellow Rails We apply our model simply because no other regional scale model of Yellow Rail distribution exists Our model should be refined with better data when it becomes available and cons
56. ive 4 and back up Drive 4 to Drive 3 Hedwig will periodically be coming to give you a new set of hard drives If you were to run out of hard drive space use the computers for the second backup ALWAYS STORE ONE HARD DRIVE IN EACH TRUCK Do not let data management pile up If you are running behind in saving data from SD cards take some time out of the field and copy the data Keeping track of existing data is as important as collecting more Page 71 Store all the data from one site in a folder labeled according to that site and the date of take down e g Site 10 14May2012 Always check and double check file names so that we know where each set of recording came from Page 72 APPENDIX 1 Left Mic M BEER Right Mic Input 2 Input X Pressure Equalizaion External Vent Power Input Cable Gland Page 73 Up Back Select Button Down LCD Display Buttons Wake Exit Button s Indicator Amp LED and j Filter m Switches Power z Selection e Switch 3 Flash Card Slots A B C D Headphone Jack i i Clock Batteries Main Batteries 4 D Cells 2 AA Cells Figure 2 Labelled Diagram of Song Meter Page 74 S 5 ADAT TUNES es Ove L4 Lo d e M hd ed T 10 0 Me ADR km JAM Mtm n hms 11 0 10 5 440 43 iS NAL 42 4 10 4 00 ML i ad ai addi dde dd mie hd ihn ie Met Sm Puss edi M A padded ati d Be M ed adt ie
57. lots In some scenarios the ARU will require installation along a forest edge where the wetland in question might encompass only a fraction of the area near the recorder In order to distribute the sub plots evenly some basic arithmetic will find out the compass heading of each sub plot To find the heading of each directional sub plot a b c d d x 7y 8 c d x y 4 b c x y 4 a b x y 4 where x and y are the respective headings where the wetland is delineated and a through d the sub plots Indicate the compass heading of each of the sub plots The center sub plot will remain C Stations entirely with upland will not be sampled Figure 17 Page 47 Figure 17 How to avoid surveying upland habitat near wetland forest ecotone 5 6 2 Habitat Identification The Canadian Wetland Classification System recognizes various wetland classes based on their overall genetic origin In this study we will differentiate visited sites into bog fen swamp marsh shallow water and open water In addition we will identify non wetland habitat types when present Differentiation will include deciduous upland conifer upland and mixedwood upland Other habitat types include burns and human impact i e well pads roads quad trails At every recorder station we will draw an aerial view map detailing the surrounding area by hand The map should include all habitat types within a visible 150 meter circular radius of the recorder
58. me circumstances The rationale of playback is that species that use sound to communicate with conspecifics will be more likely to give a cue that an Observer can detect The most common playback protocol in use has been Bazin and Baldwin 2007 which is a 10 minute point count survey that begins with a 5 minute passive survey and concludes with five successive 1 minute intervals during which Yellow Rail calls are broadcast during the first 30 seconds and then followed by 30 seconds of silence at each interval Observers assigned each detected individual to one of three distance categories 50m 51 100m and 100m The challenge with using playback is when data on other species is also of interest With hundreds of potential species detectable at any given site there is no one optimal playback sequence that can be used either diurnally or nocturnally In addition playback of some species like owls may result in other species going silent because of perceived predation risk by the prey species Passive listening by an observer precludes this conflict but may result in lower rates of detection Given that an observer can only spend a limited time at each station recording the sounds that are heard there is often a high chance of missing a species that is present but not giving a detectable cue at that time A solution to these problems is the use of ARUs automated recording units which can record sounds for extend periods of time without observer interv
59. minoid Poor Fen 6a Peatland wetlands with Larix laricina trees 10 meters tall canopies 6096 cover hummocky terrain with pools of water swamp indicators Tamarack Swamp 6b Peatland wetlands with trees in lowland forms Picea mariana or Larix laricina 10 m canopy covers 6096 shrub layer containing shrub birch Betula pumila Betula glandulosa minerotrophic indicators present hygric to hydric moisture regime moisture codes 7 9 hydrologic inputs primarily surface and groundwater medium to rich nutrient regimes ee ecce e ee e RE ag e e E PEE EETRES Rich Fens i Trees gt 2596 cover eene nnns Treed Rich Fen ii Shrubs gt 2596 cover ee cecsesescesesesesseseesseseseeseeseees Shrubby Rich Fen iii Bryophytes Herbaceous Forb gt 25 cover Graminoid Rich Fen 7a Wetlands with gt 25 emergent herbaceous or woody vegetation 9 7b Wetlands with 2596 herbaceous or woody vegetation persistent water table well above surface flooded conditions Moisture regimes 9 to 10 Submerged or floating leaved vegetation may be present eene nnne nnn Shallow Open Water i Floating or submerged aquatic vegetation gt 2596 Aquatic Bed ii Exposed mud sand gravel or rock substrate gt 25 cover Mudflats iii No vegetation present permanent to semi permanent water table 5e tes Shallow Open Water 8a Wetlands with periodic or persis
60. mitted a response December 11 2009 stating they would monitor for Yellow Rail in the 2010 field season If YR was encountered they would develop a mitigation plan as required otherwise the letter stated a plan was not warranted e Alberta Environment responded August 27 2010 They clarified survey protocol and noted that 2 observations made in MLWC and Kearl s work were important for population studies AENV mentioned that the FHOSP mitigation options as recommended are consistent with EUB decision for Shell Muskeg River Mine e The Project responded February 2 2011 confirming one YR detection on July 15 2010 which is highly likely given Kearl sightings and previous occurrences Suncor notes the Federal Government have yet to develop a management plan following that the Project would develop and mitigation strategy taking the feds plan into consideration The letter also highlighted the requirement to ensure functionality and diversity of the unmined portion of the fen which likely provides habitat for Yellow Rail e Alberta Environment responded October 26 2011 stating that EC could not confirm a yellow rail management plan so they recommended the Project develop a detailed and long term monitoring amp mitigation plan to avoid further delay which may be updated following the release of the federal plan Key wording from Alberta Environment was to develop the plan for the McClelland Lake Wetland Complex hereafter MLWC and outside the mine
61. n survey data and the standard error was reduced by 32 The different supported model parameterizations of detection resulted in differing seasonal patterns in estimates of detection At its greatest difference detection probability from the ARU data was 60 higher than detection during human surveys and the standard error was reduced by 2696 The 323 human conducted surveys required 3 230 minutes of work not accounting for time spent driving walking to each survey station The 746 1 minute segments in the ARU data required 746 minutes of real time sampling with each segment taking between 2 3 minutes to transcribe to a database 2 238 minutes at 3 minutes Therefore in real time the human conducted surveys took 1 4 times longer than ARU surveys to detect and count Yellow Rails In summary ARU have equivalent or potentially greater potential to detect Yellow Rails Combined with the other species that can be monitored with ARU the EMCLA is going to focus in 2013 on developing standards for monitoring Yellow Rails and other species using this technology Table 2 Maximum number of Yellow Rail detected by autonomous recording units and humans at 726 survey stations in Fishing Lake Saskatchewan Autonomous Recording Unit Human within 100 m Human Total 192 182 299 Page 15 m e e ooo N oOo 0 oa oS 5 uU o 09 gt o o E o o xz c 2 o o g D a o o e N o o o o o eo o a o wn N Oo a a
62. nal periods and W p 2 periods two seasonal periods The seasonal periods considered were early 18 31 May middle 1 26 June and late season 27 12 July intervals and the two season parameterization maintained the early season interval while combining the middle and late season intervals Table 2 shows the sum of the maximum count of Yellow Rails detected at each survey station by each survey method For ARUS detection distance declined steeply at 170 m and was close to zero at 230 m Fig 5 Results on human detection distance were inconclusive Fig 5 perhaps due to inconsistency between the two different observers involved in the trails Based on Yellow Rail capture efforts we estimated that calling Yellow Rail can be detected by humans at distances of 350 m to 400 m The ARU data overwhelmingly supported a model with a quadratic trend in detection i e U p Q AIC weight 0 887 so occupancy estimates were based on this model There was some model selection uncertainty for the human survey data so model averaged estimates were based on the confidence set of models which included the model with a quadratic trend in detection W p Q AIC weight 0 632 and the model with three seasonal periods U p 3 periods AIC weight 0 228 Estimates of occupancy and detection probabilities derived from ARU data were higher with smaller standard errors Fig 2 Estimated occupancy from ARU data was 1096 greater than the huma
63. natus Hippurus vulgaris Alisma gramineus Utricularia vulgaris Shallow Open Free floating Floating Leaved Submerged Water Nuphar variegatum Nymphaea tetragona Lemna minor Potamogeton richardsonii Potamogeton zosteriformis Lemna trisulca Spirodela polyrhiza Potamogeton natans Potamogeton praelongus Potamogeton pectinatus Potamogeton gramineus Polygonum amphibium Potamogeton friesii Potamogeton vaginatus Potamogeton Sparganium angustifolium Brasenia schreberi filiformis Potamogeton pusillus Myriophyllum spicatum var exalbescens Ceratophyllum demersum Ranunculus aquatilus var capillaceus Ranunculus circinatus Hippurus vulgaris Alisma gramineum Utricularia vulgaris Page 52 TABLE 12 Wetland vegetation identification based on graminoid species Wetland Type Graminoid Layer Composition Bog Eriophorum spp Carex spp Poor Fen Carex spp Rich Fen Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Hardwood Swamp Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Typha latifolia Mixedwood Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Typha latifolia Swamp Tamarack Swamp Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Typha latifolia Conifer Swamp Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Typha latifolia Shrub Swamp Calamagrostis canadensis Carex spp Typha latifolia TABLE 13 Wetland vegetation identification based on bryophytes Wetland Type Bog Poor Fen Rich Fen Hardwood Swamp Mixedwood Swamp Tamarack Swamp Conifer Swamp Shrub Swamp Marsh Shallow Water
64. nd vegetation identification based on shrub species Wetland Type Bog Poor Fen Rich Fen Conifer Swamp Tamarack Swamp Mixedwood Swamp Hardwood Swamp Shrub Swamp Marsh Shallow Water Open Water Shrub Layer Composition Rhododendron groenlandicum Vaccinium spp Kalmia spp Betula spp Rhododendron groenlandicum Chamaedaphne calyculata Oxycoccus macrocarpus Vaccinium vitis idaea Salix spp Myrica gale Potentilla fructiosa Betula spp Andromeda polifolia Chamaedaphne calyculata Juniperus spp Lonicera villosa Rhamnus alnifolia Salix spp Rhododendron groenlandicum Chamaedaphne calyculata Betula pumila Betula glandulosa Gaultheria hispidula Kalmia polifolia Ledum groenlandicum Lonicera villosa Oxycoccus microcarpus Vaccinium myrtilloides Salix spp Andromeda polifolia Betula papyrifera Chamaedaphne calyculata Lonicera villosa Myrica gale Potentilla fruticosa Rhamnus alnifolia Ledum groenlandicum Salix spp Salix spp Alnus spp Cornus stolonifera Rhamnus alnifolia Salix spp Alnus spp Cornus stolonifera Rhamnus alnifolia Salix spp Alnus spp Cornus stolonifera Rubus idaeus None Page 50 Shrub Height 2m 2m 2m N A N A N A 0 10 m gt 2 m Page 51 TABLE 11 Wetland vegetation identification based on forb species Wetland Type Forb Layer Composition Bog Drosera spp Maianthemum trifolium Rubus chamaemorus Sarracena purpurea Poor Fen Drosera spp Equisitem fluviat
65. ng shows excess static try different microphones and make sure that the mics are properly connected to the external ports If none of these remedies work take the unit out of service and have it checked over more thoroughly SECTION 4 Field Deployment This section will walk you through how to mount the ARU to a tree and a few other bits of information for successful deployment Always make sure that you are following project specific instructions to find the correct ARU location The following equipment is needed to complete the job e ARU kit ARU with mounting brackets lock cable key 2 microphones in hard sided case three 16 GB SD cards mounting screws e SD card with SET files e Spare microphones and SD cards e Electric drill or screw driver if you want to use muscle power e Grey electrical wire for GPS enabled units e Philips screw driver or universal screwdriver with Philips bit e GPS e Data sheets e Flagging tape e Felt marker and pencil e Backpack e Totes for quad transport ARU Placement Page 68 1 Chose trees that are not wider than the ARU 7 inches diameter A wider tree will interfere with sound reaching the microphones 2 Locate units far enough away from the road so that they are not easily detected by humans 15 to 20m is sufficient especially once the trees and shrubs leaf out 3 Put ARU on NORTH side of the tree to protect unit from direct sun and ensure more accurate temperature readi
66. ngs The microphones are then pointing east and west 4 Put ARU 1 5 m high on a tree Screw in both top and bottom brackets 5 For GPS enabled units mount GPS receiver higher than ARU as far as you are able to reach Use grey electrical wire to secure the cable to the tree It is important to use a soft material to tie secure the excess cable so it does not get creased or damaged 6 Open the cover 7 Follow the steps described in Activating the ARU Change the file name BEFORE you do the test recording 8 Close the cover screws 9 Finally lock the unit to the tree Run the cable over the lid and around the tree as required to take up slack It is possible to tighten the cable enough to lock the lid in place Make sure that the cable does not touch the microphones 10 Fill out all fields on the Deployment Datasheet 11 BEFORE YOU LEAVE MAKE SURE THAT YOU ATTACHED THE MICROPHONES NOTHING IS TOUCHING THE MICROPHONES AND THE UNIT IS READY TO RECORD AT THE CORRECT TIME ARU PICK UP Make sure that you have the correct keys for the locks with you before you hike out to the ARU Unlock the ARU Open the cover Follow the instructions for Deactivating an ARU Close the cover Fill out all fields on the ARU Pick up datasheet Pack the unit and microphones securing in the carrying case SO Vi P cU eck Data Sheets Fill out all fields on the datasheets every time that you deploy or pick up the ARU Do not rely on your memory to fill in
67. ngs time This is mostly because daylight savings time is determined by government action and not by nature so we cannot predict the start or end of daylight savings time as this in fact changes from time to time in different countries by their respective governments Battery life and file volume The best way to estimate the number of days that a Song Meter will run on a given schedule before the batteries run out is to use the Song Meter Configuration Utility to visualize the deployment schedule Estimates of battery life are displayed in the Song Meter Configuration Utility These estimates are fairly reliable except for BAT enabled units and GPS enabled units which require more power The configuration utility also allows you to calculate the amount of data storage as SD cards required to for a certain sampling schedule If you want to have the recorder run as long as the batteries do always have more memory space than battery life Memory space required will vary depending on file compression rate SECTION 2 Activation and Deactivation Page 65 This section covers what you need to know about starting an ARU up to run in the field and how to stop it when you pick it up Activating the ARU 13 14 Attach microphones to each side Use Philips screwdriver to open lid Use the correct size of screwdriver so that you do not strip the screws Press the Wake Exit button to start the unit Wait for the unit to initialize Press S
68. not respond to any of the buttons If this happens use the power switch to turn the unit off Let it Page 67 sit for minute and then turn it back on This will mostly get it started again Reload the SET file and check all settings after a forced shutdown like this Song Meter won t turn on This mostly happens due to an interruption of the power supply Check that the power switch is moved to internal power or the jumper is in the correct location for older models Also check that the batteries are touching all the contacts Sometimes a battery will not be positioned correctly and interrupt the circuit Timer batteries The timer batteries will also affect how the Song Meter works If you cannot set the time or the unit won t turn on check the timer batteries You will need to take the main battery holder out to do this If the timer batteries are taken out and or replaced you will have to reset the time and the time zone information Uneven gain Check that both microphones are firmly connected Check that the switch board is in the correct set up or the jumpers are securely connected on the older units Switch microphones to check if one of the mics is the problem If none of these remedies works there may be an internal wiring issues and the unit should be taken out of service and check over more thoroughly Excess static excess static in one of the channels may be cause by wiring issues or microphone connections If a test recordi
69. nts Executive SUMMAI Y seisis einsi cese ies cina dec ideiari ccn rage eee aae aue ceu seas saisie orae rasida teaudtes oreraa 2 1 Background Information on Yellow Rail monitoring in Alberta eeeeeseseeeeeeeer nnne 4 1 Life History of Yellow Rail 1 2 rtr Ether roten eee eee ey conecte He rossi R e does e vue E 4 1 2 Monitoring Objectives tse rt Sendak shade nated eno tee Pea oe ei alo eade cd es seeedeh Lege veta Ree edo 6 1 3 History of monitoring Yellow Rail in Lower Athabasca Planning Region eese 7 1 3 1 Imperial Keatliz tractet eoe rtt e RE tee ses en eund aeta eo en euet ae suse neas aea usen uu dee eE 7 1 3 2 Suncor Fort Hills e eerte eene aco ent ese bee e pe LU us ee neu seit Ft a De 8 1 3 3 Shell Canada Muskeg River Mine c ccccccccssssessssecececessesenseaeeeescesseseeaeeeseeesessesseaeeeeeesseeeees 10 1 3 4 2012 EMCLA Industrial impact on wetland animals project ccccesscccecessssestaeeeeeeeeeesees 7 2 Approaches to Yellow Rail MONnitoring ccccsscccccceesssssssecececeseeseausecesecssesseauaeeeseesseeseaeaeeeeeesseeees 12 2 1 Playback versus passive liStQNiNg cccceessssccececesessesssaecececscseseaeaeeeeeesseeeeaeaesesecsscesesaeaeeeeeesseeegs 12 2 2 Factors influencing detection of Yellow Rail in the boreal forest ccccssseceeeeesessessaeeeeeeeseseees 16 3 Where should we sample
70. ominantly Sphagnum peat accumulation tree heights 10 m canopy closures 6096 eene nennen nnne enne nnns enne 6 Peatland wetlands with raised surface relative to surrounding terrain hydrologic input is precipitation no contact with surface or groundwater inputs mesic moisture regimes moisture code 6 very poor to poor nutrient regimes tree layer if present is 10m in height and lt 60 canopy cover and dominated by the lowland form of Picea mariana shrub layer is ericaceous no fen or swamp indicators Sphagnum moss dominant Bogs i Trees 2596 COVER iuter extitit ton ie iei iend Treed Bog ii Shrubs gt 2596 cover aea n Shrubby Bog iii Bryophytes Herbaceous Forb gt 25 cover Open Bog Peatland wetlands with some mineral rich water inputs mesic to hygric moisture regimes moisture code 6 8 more species rich vegetation assemblages than in 6a trees if present contain both Picea mariana lowland form and Larix laricina at 6096 cover and 10 m in height shrub layer contains a mixture of ericaceous shrubs dwarf willows and shrub birch Betula Page 55 pumila Betula glandulosa typically at heights of 2 m graminoid layer typically has a large component of ttet eseese ris Poor Fens i Trees gt 2596 cover on EEEa Treed Poor Fen ii Shrubs gt 2596 cover eee ceesesescesssseesseseesesseseeeeeseees Shrubby Poor Fen iii Bryophytes Herbaceous Forb gt 25 cover Gra
71. oundaries of the sub plot estimate the total cover percentage of each of the following classes of vegetation when applicable open water bare ground grasses sedges rushes bulrush cattail Phragmites emergent forbs emergent shrubs moss lichen and dead vegetation cover A list of various types of vegetation you may encounter throughout different wetland types in included in Tables 10 14 As with the wetland identification identify sub plot vegetation down to species when possible Horizontal Cover Using the cover board one observer will stand at the location of the sub plot and the second observer 10 m towards the center sub plot Percentage of vegetation cover will be taken at intervals of 50 cm 0 50 cm and 50 100 cm Indicate primary species genus or family if species is not known of vegetation cover Indicate also if the vegetation is alive or dead TABLE 9 Wetland vegetation identification based on tree species Wetland Type Primary Conifer Species Present Bog Black Spruce Lowland Form Poor Rich Fen Tamarack Black Spruce Hardwood Swamp None Mixedwood Swamp Black Spruce Tamarack Balsam Fir Tamarack Swamp Tamarack Conifer Swamp Black Spruce Balsam Fir Shrub Swamp None Marsh Shallow None Water Open Water Primary Deciduous Species Present None None Balsam Poplar Paper Birch Balsam Poplar Paper Birch None None None None Page 49 Tree Height 2 10m 2 10m gt 10 m N A N A N A N A TABLE 10 Wetla
72. phic location and time zone Setting the File Prefix The Song Meter automatically labels each recording with the date and time that it started according to the following format YYYYMMDD hhmmss In addition it allows for a 12 character file prefix that is set by the user This prefix becomes part of the file name for every recording made during a particular recording session This prefix needs to be programmed at each deployment to a new location The prefix may contain capital letters numbers and hyphens Press the select button to advance to each position in the prefix and then use the up and down arrows to select from among the possible characters Press select one more time to mark the end of the prefix Use the cluster site station name as the file prefix unless instructed otherwise The file prefix cannot be set in the Song Meter Configuration Utility Latitude Longitude and Time zone The latitude and longitude need to be set for the study area for all SM2 and SM2 BAT Song Meters Use the latitude and longitude of the actual point of the site or of the study area Having the correct latitude and longitude is most important if you create a recording schedule that tracks either sunrise or sunset The final value to set for the location is the time zone You can specify the local time zone as used to set the clock in hours relative to UTC Universal Time Coordinated Note that Song Meter does not automatically adjust for daylight savi
73. r classification map 2012 Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Available from http abmi ca abmi home home jsp Source Alberta human footprint classification map 2012 Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute Available from http abmi ca abmi home home jsp Page 26 Legend dis a Propsoed yellow rait survey area C Yellow rail RSF score moo S 0 02 0 05 a E J 0 06 0 14 9 mE 0 15 0 38 mno Historic yellow rail location Highway EP Cold Lake Air Weapons Range C Lower Athabasca Planning Region E ue EST PS 9 P 4 Figure 9 Predictive RSF model based on Yellow Rail presences Hotter colors indicate areas with higher selection Higher selection indicates areas more likely to be used than expected based on the availability of that habitat Page 27 Table 4 Ranking of resource selection function RSF models for yellow rail at small 100 m buffer and large 1 000 m scales in northeast Alberta 100 meter buffer 1 000 meter buffer Model AIC AAIC AlCweight AIC AAIC AIC weight Wenona t 200 5 0 0 0 999 204 30 0 00 1 000 Landcover Wetland 239 3 38 9 0 000 227 62 23 32 0 000 Landcover 214 2 13 8 0 001 254 22 49 92 0 000 Page 28 Table 5 Beta coefficients standard errors z and p values and odds ratios of covariates used to model yellow rail habitat selection at small 100 m buffer and large 1 000 m buffer scales in northeast Albert
74. r tight and can with stand most weather conditions in the field However do not get water inside on the electronic components or into the external microphone sockets Water will short out the electrical circuits and may cause permanent damage to the units Take extra care on activation and deactivation on rainy days Having wet hands gloves and clothing will make it difficult to keep the inside of the ARU dry On rainy days make sure that you keep the microphone sockets dry so that the unit is not damaged from shorting out The following steps may be used to minimize the amount of time an ARU is open Rainy day activation e Setup ARUS in your truck or room Load SD cards check batteries test microphones and press Wake Exit button to prepare the recorder to start at the correct time e CLEARLY LABEL each recorder with the Site and Station that it is programed for e Take the recorder out mount it to the tree and attach the microphones Rainy Day Take Down e Take the recorder off the tree e Open it and turn it off only at the truck or in your camp e Note the time when you take down the recorder so that blank tracks can be deleted Mark this clearly on the datasheet Troubleshooting If the ARU will not start or record or is not recording equally on both channels there are a number of things to check before taking it out of service Screen freezes Just as with any other piece of electronic equipment the unit will occasionally freeze and
75. ral variability along with a poor detection may give a perception that the species is rarer than it truly is Figure 2 Picture of Yellow rail From http upload wikimedia org wikipedia commons 6 62 Yellow_Rail jpg Page 6 1 2 Monitoring Objectives The primary objective of the EMCLA s Environmental Monitoring Committee of the Lower Athabasca Yellow Rail monitoring program is to identify whether the Yellow Rail is actually rare in NE Alberta and if so what are the primary reasons for its rarity The second objective is to determine if there is a more cost effective way of monitoring this species in time and space The third objective is to use this information to develop an impact hypothesis to predict how habitat alteration by industrial activities such as the energy sector might influence Yellow Rail distribution and abundance over time Finally the information that has been collected to date is being used to create a proposal for a long term monitoring program for the Yellow Rail Specifically the logic and cost efficacy of adding a single species sampling design to larger scale biodiversity programs will be evaluated as data becomes available The primary reason Yellow Rails are targeted for species specific monitoring in Alberta is because of EPEA Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval conditions The EPEA approval regulates the construction operation and reclamation of the EPEA approved facility These approvals
76. s being influenced by climate change and water management activities across the landscape COSEWIC 2009 Such landscape level changes in may result from the cumulative effects of many independent local scale water management activities or from large scale water management activities that have landscape scale effects Reclamation efforts that do not restore wetlands to their original types will not restore habitat for Yellow Rail For example oilsands development in Alberta is resulting in the loss of fens which are then being replaced by other types of wetlands if restored at all Oil Sands Working Group 2000 Such landscape level changes may affect summer growth condition and affect the quality of habitat sites available Changes in the landscape level habitat matrix through the cumulative impacts of the loss and transformation of stand level habitats and surrounding areas can influence changes in predator communities that may increase predation and or nest predation The statistical models developed for issue 2 if sufficient Yellow Rails are detected will be able to predict the amount of Yellow Rail habitat that exists currently Using future scenario models the amount of habitat that will be lost and for what period of time can be modeled This will NOT be something that EMCLA will do in 2013 but the models can be provided to interested parties Predator responses to industrial development are not a direct objective of EMCLA However EMCLA is
77. stimating industrial and road noise at sites with and without Yellow Rail The models that include noise and light level will control for other sources of variation such as habitat conditions and industrial footprint Note because relatively little Yellow Rail habitat is directly adjacent to industrial facilities such models will have very low statistical power Issue 8 Water Pollution and Pesticides Water pollution is an important stressor because wetlands gather run off and thus indirectly expose Yellow Rail to contaminants collected from across the drainage which can lead to a variety of impacts COSEWIC 2009 Pollution from agriculture is especially relevant to Yellow Rail but pollutants from other industrial activities within the same drainage may also accumulate in wetlands Water pollution can result in decreased prey abundance and degradation of wetlands both of which are discussed above Pesticides are known to reduce hatching success in other rail species Schwarzbach et al 2006 therefore the model infers that this pathway occurs through toxicity impacts on Yellow Rail which can then affect fecundity and presumably summer growth condition Pesticides are known to reduce prey abundance arthropods especially beetles spiders and flies for other rail species Schwarzbach et al 2006 Decreasing prey abundance may impact summer survival directly or may impact fecundity and summer growth condition through a reduction in stand level habi
78. survey over the entire Lower Athabasca planning region the EMCLA will be able to document which areas disturbed by oil and gas could be deemed as lost because of energy sector activities By documenting water depth in suitable vegetation in areas with and without Yellow Rails both currently and using historical data where available potential thresholds of water draw down or changes in flow will be identified This assumes that significantly more Yellow Rails are located in 2013 to be able to generate the necessary model information Issue 2 Habitat Transformation The conversion of habitats for agriculture results in habitat transformation from wetlands bogs fens marshes to other habitat types unsuitable for Yellow Rail However Yellow Rail will still use some cultivated landscapes for habitat In Alberta there have also been several sites that were historically occupied by Yellow Rail that have been taken over by agriculture for use as range for grazing livestock Prescott et al 2003 i e conversion to an alternate land use Linear clearing for utility corridors e g pipelines and power lines associated with oil and gas projects in Alberta may result in habitat transformation in addition to the habitat loss described above COSEWIC 2009 While patch clearing may not have a direct impact on Yellow Rail habitat it does result in the transformation of adjacent forest lands that changes the landscape level habitat matrix The resulting d
79. tand level wetland habitats in addition to their landscape level impacts on hydrologic regimes as represented above Wetlands gather run off and therefore water pollution especially from agricultural chemicals but also from other sources can lead to the contamination of wetland habitats Changes in hydrology due to climate change may further exacerbate these processes Wetland degradation may impact fecundity and summer growth condition through a reduction in stand level habitat quality Water depth will be evaluated as part of the 2013 Yellow Rail Monitoring program however water quality data will not be collected If member companies would like to consider this option the samples could be processed via ABMI water chemistry protocols However there is no budget for this currently and more resources would be required to do so Issue 6 Predator Communities Raptors appear to be the primary predator of Yellow Rails though they may be vulnerable to foxes and herons as well Walkinshaw 1939 Grace et al 2005 It is suspected that eggs and nestlings may be vulnerable to a range of predators COSEWIC 2009 A study in Oregon found evidence of nest predation by Red winged Blackbirds and Marsh Wrens Bookhout 1995 reports that there is no information available on nest parasitism for Yellow Rails As illustrated in the higher level models landscape level changes in the spatial configuration of habitat types can result in changes in predator commun
80. tat quality COSEWIC 2009 does not mention the possibility of direct mortality from pesticides i e incidental take but given the exposure of Yellow Rail to pollution the model includes this pathway based on inferences from other species At this time we will NOT evaluate whether pollution in wetlands is an issue We would surmise that ongoing studies by JOSM related to air and water monitoring can identify whether or not there are issues of concern We assume that such models could be used in the future with predictive models of Yellow Rails to evaluate the overlap in Yellow Rail habitat and pollutant issues Issue 9 Incidental Take Breeding Season Throughout its life cycle Yellow Rail is vulnerable to fairly high levels of incidental take due to agricultural operations such as mowing cropping or haying Yellow Rails may also be vulnerable to predation by cats COSEWIC 2009 Damage to Yellow Rails and their nests has been accidentally caused by birders at several sites Cochrane Environmental Consultants Inc 1998 Alvo and Robert 1999 Lindgren 2001 Although there is no information for Yellow Rail pesticides are known to directly affect other rail species Schwarzbach et al 2006 Yellow Rail may be vulnerable to collisions with structures and fences in their breeding range in addition to their migratory range Incidental take directly affects survival We foresee that direct clearing of land for energy development during the bree
81. tell the operator what valued ecosystem components must be tracked and monitored as part of their operating activities The goal of these terms is to address concerns raised by Joint Review panels associated with Environmental Impact Assessment EIA hearings and ensure that deleterious impacts on valued ecosystem components are minimized At the time of their regulatory applications several oilsands companies were identified as proposing projects that were located in areas believed to be important Yellow Rail habitat Given the status of Yellow Rail at the time of the EIA further monitoring of this species was identified as an approval condition The EPEA approval conditions for Shell s Albian Sands mine Imperial Oil s Kearl Oil Sands Project and Suncor s Fort Hills mine stated that e the approval holder shall provide a plan or participate in the development of a plan for the monitoring and mitigation of the Yellow Rail Cotumicops noveboracensis by December 31 200X to the satisfaction of the Director unless otherwise authorized in writing by the Director Clause 6 1 85 This report and the recommendations therein are intended to partially meet this condition e Clause 6 1 86 whereby The approval holder shall implement the activities outlined in the plan referred to in subsection 6 1 85 including but not limited to surveys determination of effects the implementation of mitigation strategies and measures where appropriate
82. tent flooding or slow moving surface water moisture regimes 8 10 nutrient regimes rich to very rich and dominated with herbaceous or forb vegetation emergents graminoids sedges rushes some grasses Marshes i Vegetation composed of gt 25 emergent species Emergent Marsh ii Vegetation composed of gt 25 graminoid forb species Meadow Marsh 8b Wetlands with woody vegetation gt 1m standing water and nutrient rich water moisture regimes 6 7 8 9 with a hummocky microtopography swamp indicators Swamps 10 9a Wetlands with trees lt 25 cover shrubs gt 25 cover shrub vegetation primarily tall form Salix spp Alnus rugosa Cornus stolonifera 2 m with species rich herbaceous forb ndersto yee kernas eterne Shrub Swamp Swamp Thicket 9b Wetlands with trees gt 25 cover enne 11 10a Hardwood dominated primarily Betula papyrifera in upland transitional environments or Populus balsamifera in floodplain environments wetlands with trees 10 m and canopy closures 6096 moisture regimes 7 9 nutrient regimes rich to very rich E Hardwood Swamp 10b Wetlands with hardwood Betula papyrifera and or conifer Larix laricina Picea mariana present with no dominance of either 8096 single tree type in canopy trees 2 10m and canopy closures gt 60 nutrient regimes rich to very rich moisture regimes 7 9 swamp indicators present sss
83. the Back button to stop the recording and then follow the steps above SECTION 3 Important ARU Care Instructions Page 66 Always handle the ARU units with care They contain sensitive electronic components that will not withstand crushing or heavy impacts Do not use excess force to remove the cover tighten the cover screws or take the mics on and off Do all these operations gently Use the correct size screwdriver on the cover screws so that the head do not get stripped ARU transport Dropping the units or having them bounce around during transport can cause damage to the connections inside and destroy the outside as well Always transport the ARUs in the padded bag provided or in a similar padded secure wrapping Be especially careful with the GPS enabled units and make sure that they cables do not get bent or damaged Transporting in Totes Put the foam pads in the bottom of the totes Put enough packing material around the ARU bags that these cannot bounce around in the totes Strap the totes firmly to the quad so that the totes cannot fall off during rough trails The microphones are also sensitive to impact and pressure Always transport them in hard side cases that are waterproof and cannot be crushed If microphones are wet when you pick up a recorder make sure to dry them out before storing them Rain Snow and other wet stuff Extra care is required to handle ARUs in wet weather When the Song Meters are closed they are wate
84. ve ability created 5 Each company with an Environmental Protection amp Enhancement Act EPEA Approval clause has already looked for Yellow Rails in their project footprints In 2013 each company will survey a minimum of 30 locations within graminoid fen and marsh complexes within their project footprints The EMCLA group at the University of Alberta will attempt to survey an addition 520 locations within 7km of truck accessible roads across the Lower Athabasca planning region to provide a more regional evaluation EMCLA sites range from Cold Lake where Yellow Rails have been found historically to Fort Chipewyan 6 All data will be collected by Automated Recording Units and the data permanently archived by the EMCLA The EMCLA will be responsible for listening to recordings and modeling resulting habitat relationships 7 The survey is designed to be directly comparable with ABMI Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute protocols By placing ABMI grid of bird sampling in specific habitats and having the ARU operational at night for many nights the probability of detecting Yellow Rail is maximized 8 The design of the program is such that we can answer 1 what wetland class Yellow Rails are most likely to be found in 2 the size of graminoid fens that they are most likely to occur 3 the percentage shrubs trees in a fen that are too much to support Yellow Rails and 4 water depths required to find the species Page 3 Table of Conte
85. veys per station Human surveys followed Bazin and Baldwin 2007 The ARU recordings were sampled by listening to 1 minutes segments of recordings that were made at the top of the hour between the times 22 00 03 00 hrs For each station six to eleven 1 minute segments were processed totaling 746 1 minute segments of recording Yellow Rail calls and tones at a sub set of survey stations were also broadcast to test for potential difference in detection distance between humans and ARUs Using the software Raven Pro or Adobe Audition while listening listeners viewed the spectrogram of all of the recordings and were permitted to pause and replay portions of the recording to locate Yellow Rails Counts of individual Yellow Rails were made by viewing a 0 17 second length the distance between successive ticks of recording wherein overlapping calls from individual birds can be seen on the spectrogram Page 14 Single season occupancy models were implemented in Program MARK White and Burnham 1999 Encounter histories were formatted so that each encounter occasion comprised a 4 day interval The human survey data had a 13 occasion encounter history 22 May 12 July and the ARU data had a 14 occasion encounter history 18 May 12 July A candidate set of six models included U p constant detection U p t detection varying over time U p T linear trend in detection U p Q quadratic trend in detection U p 3 periods three seaso
86. you want to record shorter block of time reduce the number of repeats in line 04 For example if you wanted to record for 6 hours on the hour starting at 4 AM the schedule would look like this 01 AT TIME 04 00 00 02 RECORD 00 10 00 03 PAUSE 00 50 00 04 GOTO LINE 02 06X 05 GOTO LINE 01 00X If you don t want to end up with excess data and only want to record for a set number of days simply change the value in line 05 to the number of days you want to record for More complex recording schedules are possible including different schedules for different days Page 78 Literature Cited

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