The cost model accounts for labor, equipment, and terrestrial and aerial access costs. Cost estimates were provided by the Alberta Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Program (D. Farr, personal communication). Sampling of sites is completed by two-person field crews. Within our simulated range, each crew samples one site per day, regardless of point-count station density. Based on an annual crew cost of $26,667, and assuming 30 site visits per crew in a year, the cost per site sampling visit is $889. Sites are also visited once prior to initiation of the monitoring program, to locate sites and identify point-count stations, at a cost of $1,333 per site. Because of the remoteness of much of Alberta’s forest, it is assumed that 50% of the sites require aerial (helicopter) access. Each site requires two hours of helicopter time, at a cost of $750 per hour. Total program cost is then:

[A3.1]

The equation underestimates true monitoring cost because it accounts only for field and access costs, and not for costs associated with administration, data analysis and management, training, and report production. However, because the magnitude of these excluded costs is relatively independent of sample effort, the model should provide a reasonable portrayal of the relative costs of the sample effort parameters.