Datasets / The Importance of Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley Reforestation and Wetland Restoration Sites to Wintering Migratory Birds; Annual Report


The Importance of Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley Reforestation and Wetland Restoration Sites to Wintering Migratory Birds; Annual Report

Published By US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior

Issued over 9 years ago

US
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Summary

Type of release
a one-off release of a single dataset

Data Licence
Not Applicable

Content Licence
Creative Commons CCZero

Verification
automatically awarded

Description

Major efforts have been initiated in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley LMA V. Fig. I from within both the U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture to restoreenhance wetlands, improve natural hydrology and reestablish bottomland hardwood forests. These programs were instigated because most palustrineforested wetlands have been either lost or altered and the rate of forested wetland loss continues to increase in the region Hefner et al. 1994. These restoration initiatives have many goals, one of which is the management of habitats for the benefit of migratory birds. While some management techniques are currently available for land managers to pursue these objectives, to date, few evaluations of the success of these programs have been made with respect to migratory birds. Also, evaluations of the use of these lands by migratory birds have not been made, nor have the management methods employed there been evaluated from the standpoint of bird use. One group of migratory birds that frequents the LMA V. birds preferring early successional habitats also referred to as grassland and scrubsuccessional birds. is of special interest to wildlife managers for two primary reasons. First, as a whole, this group of birds has experienced widespread population declines and range reductions Sauer et a!. 1999. Second, the habitats preferred by these birds require perturbations at regular intervals to set succession back to an earlier stage Krementz and Christie 1999. Thus, knowledge of management tools for publicowned lands, as well as private lands managed by federal assistance is required. Furthermore, understanding the wintering requirements of earlysuccessional species has been emphasized by the Southeastern Working Group of Partners in Flight in their Bird Conservation Plan for the Mississippi Alluvial Valley Twedt et al. 1999. Among the many general land management tools and programs available to land managers, we are in the process of investigating two in particular: reforestation and hydrologic restoration. The FWS describe these practices and the evaluation of these programs as of national significance in the FWS Research Needs. We hypothesize that both management practices will produce habitats that earlysuccessional birds prefer compared to sites not managed, and that active management will be necessary to maintain the attractiveness of these sites to earlysuccessional birds.