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features (e.g., power lines, houses). When a crane group utilizes an area containing standing or <br />flowing water three parallel transects 25m apart will be established such that the middle transect <br />crosses through the most recent crane group location. This procedure will provide data in the <br />area a crane group used while acknowledging the difficulty in determining exact crane group <br />location when viewed from a distance. The three perpendicular transects located at each roost <br />site will allow the calculation of a variance for each roost characteristic. Water depth <br />measurements will be taken along each transect every 3m or when changes in topography are <br />encountered. Measurements will continue along each transect until an obstruction greater than <br />1.5m is encountered. Transects will be situated perpendicular to the flow for river locations and <br />perpendicular to the long axis of non - flowing water bodies. Distances to the closest visual <br />obstruction (e.g., vegetation, sandbar) greater than 1.5m will be determined using a laser range <br />finder. Distances. from the crane group location to obstructions greater than 1.5m parallel and <br />perpendicular to the depth transects will also be made using the range finder. The nearest <br />upstream and downstream gage will be used to document provisional daily flows during the <br />period of crane use, and when the habitat measures are made, both of which will be the USGS <br />published flow. <br />FWS and/or NGPC personnel that currently conduct site use evaluations will help train Program <br />staff and contractors for future site evaluations. In addition to completing the Program's Site <br />Use Data Form, evaluations will involve collecting information that can be directly compared to <br />currently collected data. This will entail completing the FWS's Whooping Crane Riverine Use - <br />Site Channel Profile and Site Evaluation Form (see Section X) <br />IV.C. Data Collection from State and Federal Agencies <br />The Program Manager or Biologist will contact personnel from each state and federal wildlife <br />agency annually for information related to crane migrational sightings within the whooping <br />crane's migration corridor. This information will be compiled in the Program's annual report. <br />Information obtained from each state will include, if possible, the number and location of cranes <br />observed, the amount effort put forward in locating the cranes, and all collected information <br />related to habitat use. Currently Wally Jobman, FWS, is the central collection point for all state <br />and federal information. It may only be necessary to contact Mr. Jobman for this information. <br />IV.D. Analysis Methods <br />The information collected through this protocol will be used to define the habitat characteristics <br />of whooping crane use sites in the study area. The protocol is designed to provide data collected <br />on crane groups with known probability of inclusion in the sample regardless of where in the <br />study area the crane group is located. The aerial survey data provides this information while the <br />opportunistically located cranes have unknown probability of inclusion of each crane group in <br />the sample. For this reason, analyses will be conducted separately for cranes located <br />opportunistically and for cranes located through the aerial surveys. <br />Since the whooping crane is a rare species and identifying individual cranes is usually not <br />possible, all analyses with this data will need to balance small sample sizes with pseudo - <br />replication. There are two options for the analysis, one analysis will use every observation taken <br />on each crane group, and will contain multiple observations per group. The second analysis will <br />9 <br />