Proposal - Evaluate Burrowing Crayfish Monitoring Methods

Proposal is designed to evaluate several different techniques to capture primary burrowing crayfish and provide baseline presence and habitat types used by four at-risk species (angular dwarf crayfish, burrowing bog crayfish, speckled burrowing crayfish, spinytail crayfish) on the Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR. (1) A final report including: crayfish catch-per-unit-effort by species, sampling area, method, and date; a comparison of results by sampling method and season; recommendations for crayfish monitoring methods on the refuge - or an explanation of topics that need further exploration prior to designing such a program, (2) professional photographs of all crayfish species sampled, with copyright held by USDA Forest Service (USFS), and (3) all vouchered crayfishes will be retained by the USFS during the study and then deposited with the refuge or with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.