Not so bad so far, yea?

Here is where things get really tough - for everyone - with wet season surveys.

Wet season surveys are hard to budget for because they are completely based on the weather and how long the pools stay filled for, if they refill, and how big the rain events are. They are also very difficult to schedule as you don't know when that first big rain event will occur. There is indeed a lot of guesswork here, but experienced firms can come pretty close by making assumptions that only those with a deep bench of experience can do.

The USFWS protocol states that surveys must commence "Surveyors should visit sites after initial storm events to determine when known or potential listed large branchiopod habitat has become inundated. Appropriate habitat is considered to be inundated when it holds greater than 3 cm of standing water 24 hours after a rain event", and they must continue... 

Survey Zone A (Southern Oregon, Sacramento Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, North Coast Ranges, Northern Sierra Valley Foothills, Cascade Range foothills, and South Coast Ranges:

• All potential habitat must be adequately sampled at 14-day intervals after initial inundation of habitat.
• Sampling will continue within each potential habitat until it dries or a minimum of 90 consecutive days of inundation has occurred. S
• Sampling will be reinitiated within 14 days of an individual habitat drying and inundating during the same wet season.

Survey Zone B (San Joaquin Valley, Central and Southern Sierra Nevada foothills and Tehachapi Mountains:

• All potential habitat must be adequately sampled at 10-day intervals after initial inundation of habitat
• Sampling will continue within each potential habitat until it dries or a minimum of 90 consecutive days of inundation has occurred
• Sampling will be reinitiated within 10 days of an individual habitat drying and inundating during the same wet season

Survey Zone C (Southwestern California including South Coast, Channel Islands (U.S. only), Transverse and Peninsular Ranges:

• All potential habitat must be adequately sampled at 7-day intervals after initial inundation of habitat
• Sampling will continue within each potential habitat until it dries or a minimum of 120 consecutive days of inundation has occurred (based on the life cycle of Streptocephalus woottoni)(Hathaway and Simovich 1996)
• Sampling will be reinitiated within 7 days of an individual habitat drying and inundating during the same wet season

Here is the real kicker. Did you see that third bullet point for all regions? What happens if my pools dry up after, say, 10 weeks? Great, right? Not so fast! If the pools refill because there is another inundating rain event, well guess what. You are back out there commencing your surveys all over again! 
"If a feature has already experienced the minimum allotted days of continuous inundation (90 or 120 days), but then dries down and subsequently refills in the same wet season, surveys must be re-initiated in accordance with IV(b)(1),(2), or (3) above, each time the feature refills and meets the 3 cm of standing water criterion."

How does one budget for the rain and inundation in California? I'll tell you the truth: it is really hard, and there is a lot of guess work and additional assumptions.

This is precisely why we recommend doing one wet season (min requirement) and one dry season survey to satisfy USFWS requirements, instead of two wet season surveys. (fact: we'd make more money doing two wet season surveys, but we prefer what is best for our client's budgets and the least amount of hassle for everyone). 

The only saving grace, but don't count on it,
"However, in some cases, as determined by the Service, the Guidelines may be suspended prior to completion if the presence of one or more of the six listed large branchiopods on the subject site is determined through identification at any point within the wet season survey cycle."