B--Analysis of Northern Spotted Owl Fitness Relative to "Baseline Ranking"

Objective 1: Develop habitat map based on northern spotted owl fitness data and compare with current habitat map based on northern spotted owl presence. Tasks: 1. Refine equation for translating landscape features into fitness values. 2. Develop landscape fitness map based on TTF vegetation layer and current USFWS vegetation layer. 3. Compare 2 landscape fitness maps with current USFWS spotted owl presence map. 4. Write report of findings. Objective 2: Development of habitat map based on long-term occupancy data of northern spotted owls on sites in northwest California. Tasks: 1. Develop data file from existing data on NW California spotted owl demography study for use in Mackenzie capture-recapture estimator. 2. Develop covariates from current USFWS vegetation map. 3. Analyze occupancy data from step 1 with covariates from step 2. 4. Develop probability of occupancy landscape map from models in step 3. 5. Compare probability of occupancy landscape map with current USFWS probability of presence map. 6. Write report of findings. The US Fish and Wildlife Service intends to make award of this project to Colorado State University because the university has already begun conducting this work in relation to various other projects sponsored by different entities. Interested parties have seven days to reply to this notice of intent before award will be made to the University.