This website, hosted by the California Avian Data Center (CADC) at Point Blue Conservation Science, will give users quick and easy access to data generated by the Sierra Nevada Management Indicator Species (MIS)/ Bioregional Monitoring project currently being implemented by Point Blue. We have provided links to download our field survey locations and raw data, plus analyses that provide tables, graphs, and maps of data from over 100,000 species occurrence records from nearly 3,000 point count locations across conifer, chaparral, and riparian habitats in the Sierra Nevada region.

This project targets the habitats of four management indicator species (MIS) in order to track changes in their distributions (and associated species) at the Sierra Nevada scale by monitoring the changes in their occurrence across a large number of sample locations on forest and riparian habitats. This project provides a unique opportunity to monitor multiple species at a regional scale using standardized methods in order to evaluate the population responses to a variety of management and other influences on wildlife habitat. Statistically rigorous regional-scale monitoring programs are rare in the western United States. There is a general consensus in the scientific and management community that more monitoring is needed to track wildlife response to climate change, forest management, and other forms of habitat alteration. After eleven years of field surveys starting in the summer of 2009, we currently have approximately 600,000 bird occurrence records from over 190 species at approximately 2,900 point count survey locations from Modoc to Sequoia National Forest.

Data from the most recent field season are incorporated into this site within several months of it being collected. The analyses and output that are available include: locations viewable on a map or in raw formats, effort and sample summaries, density estimates, species richness, and occupancy. These analyses can be generated at targeted study areas of interest from the entire Sierra Nevada bioregion down to the Forest District level. To get started, please select either the Explore Project Results or View Study Locations tabs above and follow the step-by-step instructions.