Data Management Plan

USFWS Data Management Plan
Project Information
Project Title
Double-crested Cormorant Survey Pacific Flyway
Last Updated
2024-05-09 12:41
Project Description
Management guidelines for permitting the lethal take of double-crested cormorants (DCCO) in the U.S. are
now guided by a 2020 EIS developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of the EIS an assessment
was done to estimate allowable annual lethal take of DCCO. In addition, the USFWS also called for a
monitoring where DCCO population size is estimated every 5 years in the Pacific Flyway. At about the same
time the EIS was completed the Pacific Flyway asked the USFWS to examine and suggest improvements to its
existing sampling design to estimate DCCO annual abundance. This review and redesign of the survey was
completed and the survey of colonies will commence summer 2024.
FWS Cost Center

Primary USFWS Program

Primary USFWS Region

FF09M25000

Migratory Birds

Region 9 Headquarters

Partner Organizations

Keywords
Cormorant

Roles and Responsibilites
Data Trustee

Data Steward

Richkus, Ken ([email protected])

Seamans, Mark ([email protected])

Data Custodian

Data Producer

Sanders, Todd ([email protected])

Seamans, Mark ([email protected])

Data Management Timeline
Project Timeline

Project Start Date

Ongoing

2024-05-10

Project End Date

Data Review Schedule
Annual

Data Aquisition and Collection
Types of Data to be Collected

Exisiting Data

Tabular, Relational Database (SQL, Access, GDB, etc)

Data Storage and Access

Data Storage Location

Project Reference Number

Local Storage, OneDrive

Pending

Data Storage Links
IFWL-4L5RYY3
Data Access
Open
Data Access Justification

Required Resources
Required Resources
Data will be stored on an existing local and existing digital library on the IFW server. Data will be entered into
a relational database (Microsoft Access).

Data and Metadata Standards
Data Standard

Metadata Standard

Not Applicable

Not Applicable

Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Data Quality Assurance
A stratified random design will be used for monitoring in 2024 to estimate the number of breeding DCCO. A
count of nests will be done at each colony selected for sampling. The number of breeding birds will be
estimated as two times the estimated number of nests. The sampling frame is defined by the historic colony
sites. A database of historic colony sites was reviewed by biologists in each state and updated during
summer and fall 2023. The number of strata and their boundaries will be allowed to change over time to
accommodate changes in the number of colonies and distribution of colony sizes in the population.
Stratification for the 2024 sample is being done using the R package ‘SamplingStrata’ (Barcoroli 2014) and
stratification is based on the DCCO nest count at individual colonies when they were last surveyed. Other
auxiliary information (e.g., state, coastal versus interior sites, land ownership, physical characteristics of a
colony) can be used to inform stratification but will not be included in the 2024 sample draw. Given a desired
level of precision, the SamplingStrata package can determine the oprimal stratification for a population
frame at the minimum cost. For the Pacific Flyway the cost to sample individual colonies was not provided,
thus it was assumed that the cost to survey was the same across colonies.
Data Quality Control
At the completion of each year of data collection, data will be entered into the database and checked for
defects. Any defects will be corrected immediately by reviewing field data sheets to determine the solution
and if not resolved then the technician that submitted the data will be contacted to find a solution. If the
data defect cannot be resolved, then the record will be deleted from the database. Once the annual data are
entered and initial checks for data defects are completed, then a QAQC program (written in program R) will
be run with the data to check for any detectable problems. Any detected data problems will be corrected as
described above during data entry. Meta data and documentation will be maintained describing the
databased and data entry and QAQC procedures.

Records Management
Records Schedule

Records Types

PROJ-100 Project Files (NC1-22-78-1/37) These
surveys are conducted to compile information about
fish and wildlife. The data is used for writing reports
and other publications. The surveys for Cormorants
were conducted to compile information needed for
analysis and report writing.

Survey information, data and summary reports of fish
and wildlife numbers, locations, habitat.

Records Disposition
Temporary, destroyed when 20 years old

Additional Information
File Attachments
Comments