Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Washington
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Established in 1980, Channel Islands National Park contains essential breeding grounds for at least fourteen seabirds and shorebirds. Seabirds were identified as one of the park’s monitoring Vital Signs to provide critical information about trends in natural resource conditions and a Seabird Monitoring Handbook was created in 1983 to guide priorities and objectives for the Seabird Monitoring Program. This handbook was updated in 1988. Since then, staff turnover and funding gaps have led to an inconsistent effort in monitoring by the park. More recently, the Channel Islands National Park Seabird Biologist, in coordination with the National Park Service's Mediterranean Coast Network Inventory & Monitoring Program, has identified the need to conduct a scientific review of the park’s seabird program. Furthermore, a recent monitoring plan assessment report by Point Blue Conservation Science identified seven focal seabird species plus one shorebird species to be prioritized in an updated monitoring program. The purpose of the project proposed here is to advance Channel Islands National Park's Seabird Monitoring Program by compiling all known digitally available datasets for the eight prioritized species and conducting species-specific in-depth program reviews following NPS guidelines and in coordination with Channel Islands National Park and the National Park Service's Inventory & Monitoring Program.