The Rio Grande Joint Venture (RGJV) performs monitoring activities on private lands throughout its geography to understand how vegetation and/or bird abundance and diversity are changing in response to management actions designed to enhance and regenerate habitat. In 2024, we collected most monitoring data on properties enrolled in the South Texas Grassland Restoration Incentive Program (STX GRIP) and the West Texas Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Partnership (WTX CDCP). Additionally, other data were collected on riparian restoration areas along important creeks in the Trans Pecos, as well as in treated grasslands on private properties in Chihuahua, Mexico. RGJV Science Coordinator Rebekah Rylander hired, trained, and managed technicians with assistance from Jeff Bennett.

GEM & Bird Monitoring in South Texas

In May and June of 2024, three technicians assisted the RGJV with Grassland Effectiveness Monitoring (GEM) on 14 treatment sites across 11 properties in south Texas. (For more information on GEM, click here!) These technicians were students or recent graduates from various universities and brought a diversity of knowledge and experience to the field: Jessie Haudrich (Texas Tech University), Carolina Gutierrez (University of Arizona), and Karime Hernandez (Tarleton State University). Additionally, during the summer of 2024, one technician, Willy Hutcheson, performed point count surveys on 14 properties and 17 treatment sites in south Texas to assess bird abundance and diversity. Willy is a high school science teacher in Massachusetts but used to guide professional bird tours, including many in Texas.  His knowledge was invaluable.

Bird Monitoring in West Texas

In west Texas during the month of June, two technicians performed riparian avian point counts along two creeks in Presidio County where the RGJV has stationed autonomous recording units (ARUs). The RGJV wants to learn more about how the data that ARUs collect compares to human point counts when it comes to bird species detections and abundance. Both of these technicians are graduate students at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas: David Tonnessen and Audrey Taulli.

Training

During late August of 2024, three partners from Mexico and two from west Texas were trained on GEM protocols for fall monitoring. Training occurred on a private ranch in Brewster County, and partners from Mexico assisted RGJV staff in translating protocols and survey forms into Spanish. Mexican partners who attended the training included Alicia Juárez and Sara Sáenz from Evaluación Integral y Restauración de Hábitat (EIRHA) and Rogelio Maciel from Pronatura Noreste. Alicia and her EIRHA team have surveyed almost 100 GEM points across 13 properties in Chihuahua, Mexico where grassland restoration projects have taken place. West Texas team Clif Ladd (with RainCrow Wildlife Consulting, trained this year) and Kelsey Wogan (Sul Ross State University, trained last year) have surveyed 6 treatment sites on 3 properties across the Trans Pecos.

Winter Bird Monitoring

Beginning in December, two additional technicians will begin winter bird monitoring for the RGJV in west Texas, Emily Blumentritt and Stephen Falick of Sul Ross State University. These winter bird surveys are crucial for understanding how management efforts to reduce shrub encroachment in grasslands are influencing bird populations that are dependent on the Chihuahuan Desert during the non-breeding portion of their annual cycle.

With all of the data collected across projects and in different geographies over the years, Rylander plans to begin statistical analyses in 2025. Results will hopefully assist biologists and conservation delivery specialists with recommendations on best management practices for restoring grasslands in south and west Texas, highlighting whether certain bird species are responding to treatments and increasing in abundance and also whether certain treatments should be limited to certain geographies across the Rio Grande Joint Venture.

Photo By Rebekah Rylander

Photo By Rebekah Rylander

Photo By Rebekah Rylander

Photo by Rebekah Rylander

During the spring and summer of 2023, the Rio Grande Joint Venture’s science coordinator Rebekah Rylander initiated the joint venture’s first season of monitoring in west Texas and second season of monitoring in south Texas. The 7 treatment sites surveyed in west Texas were on private properties involved with the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Partnership (CDCP), and the 14 treatment sites that were surveyed throughout south Texas were on private properties enrolled in the Grasslands Restoration Incentive Program (GRIP). Both programs (led by Jeff Bennett in west Texas and Jesus Franco in south Texas) restore and improve native grassland habitats throughout the region with the goal to increase breeding and wintering grassland bird populations that are currently in decline.

To collect sufficient data on restoration projects, the RGJV used the Grassland Effectiveness Monitoring (GEM) protocol, a detailed survey methodology adapted from the Bureau of Land Management’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIMs) survey and NRCS’s Natural Resources Inventory (NRI). For more information on vegetation survey methodologies that the RGJV uses, visit the GEM Story Map. For avian monitoring on grassland sites in south Texas, the RGJV used a grid-style point count method similar to the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (BCR) winter bird monitoring protocol.

Rebekah Rylander trained and managed three crews across the geography to collect data using the GEM protocol. One crew covered Hudspeth and Culberson Counties in west Texas (Brandi Griffin and Cole Kempton of The Barn Group Land Trust); another crew covered sites in Brewster, Jeff Davis, and Presidio Counties in west Texas (Kelsey Wogan, a graduate student from Sul Ross State University, Jeff Bennett of the RGJV, and Rebekah Rylander, the author); and lastly a crew surveyed across all south Texas sites (Micah Rainey, a student in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas Tech University, and Brandi Griffin of The Barn Group). Additionally in south Texas, Sonia Duran, a graduate student from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, received training from Rebekah Rylander in how to conduct point counts for priority grassland bird species.

Streambed, Riparian, and Bird Song Monitoring

In addition to grassland monitoring efforts, the RGJV also began its first season (summer of 2023) conducting official streambed and riparian monitoring surveys on 4 treatment sites in west Texas with efforts led by Jeff Bennett. Data was collected on streambed cross-sections, stream flow, canopy cover, vegetative response, and other metrics to assess how the installation of brush and rock dams in selected locations is influencing the health of stream systems. Monitoring and survey efforts have been executed by Jeff Bennett and Kelsey Wogan.

Finally, the RGJV, with assistance from the Dixon Water Foundation’s Philip Boyd and Sul Ross State University’s Dr. Maureen Frank, installed 8 autonomous recording units (ARUs) along several selected properties in west Texas, including Alamito Creek Preserve. ARUs are designed to passively record bird vocalizations to assess if priority avian species are using the riparian corridors where the RGJV has focused restoration efforts. They can also detect if birds are likely breeding in an area (if vocalizations persist throughout the summer) or if they are likely using the riparian habitat as migratory corridors (vocalizations only detected during the spring and fall).

All in all, the RGJV is pleased with the progression of the 2023 monitoring season and is excited to potentially expand monitoring efforts further into the Chihuahuan desert grasslands as Mexican partners gain interest. With data sets collected using the same methodologies, we hope to better understand how restoration efforts are influencing vegetation and bird response across a larger geography.

Photo By Micah Rainey

Photo by Rebekah Rylander

Photo By Micah Rainey

Photo By Rebekah Rylander