Estimating greater prairie chicken population size and sampling of aquatic habitats in the Fint Hills of Kansas

Collect baseline data on terrestrial and aquatic species that can be used to evaluate the Surrogate Species conservation approach in the Flint Hills of Kansas. Survey Greater prairie-chicken in the Flint Hills using the same methods McDonald et al. (2014) used to estimate the range-wide lesser prairie-chicken population. A helicopter with 3 observers and a pilot will be used to survey 70 15x15km cells for prairie chicken leks. When a lek is found, the number of birds present will be counted. These data will be used to (1) develop population estimates for GPC in the Flint Hills and (2) collect data for use in development of landscape models and decision support tools for GPC. These products will allow development of population goals and decision support tools as well as baseline data needed to test the surrogate species approach for the first R6 surrogate species project area in the Flint Hills of Kansas.