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Grazing Lands Effects of Agricultural Conservation Practices on Fish and Wildlife parasitism/ nests-nesting/ pastures/ productivity/ public abundances in agricultural fields adjacent to wide borders, relations/ status/ wildlife/ federal programs/ wild birds/ which likely resulted from enhanced waste grain foraging nature conservation/ natural resources/ agricultural opportunities. Given these benefits to wintering farmland economics (general)/ land development, land reform, and birds, we advocate the integration of herbaceous field utilization (macroeconomics)/ dickcissel/ grasshopper border habitat in agricultural landscapes, particularly sparrow/ meadowlark/ brown headed cowbird/ upland borders of enhanced width. sandpiper/ Kansas/ Riley County © Thomson Reuters Scientific Abstract: Most Conservation Reserve Program contracts expire in 1997 and approximately 70 per cent of CRP fields 293. Winter bird use of Conservation Reserve Program in Kansas may be converted into pastures. The authors fields harvested for biomass. compared bird use of CRP fields to their use of pastures. Murray, Les D. and Best, Louis B. Total avian abundance was greater in pastures than on Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science 113(1-2): CRP fields. Data on five species using these habitats are 45-48. (2006) provided. NAL Call #: Q11.J68; ISSN: 0896-8381 © NISC Descriptors: conservation/ ecology/ man-made habitat/ land zones/ Aves: conservation measures/ Conservation 292. Winter avian community and sparrow response to Reserve Program fields/ habitat utilization/ winter habitat field border width. use/ cultivated land habitat/ Iowa/ Appanose/ Lucas/ Conover, Ross R.; Burger, L. Wes; and Linder, Eric T. Monroe and Wayne counties/ Aves, Galliformes, Journal of Wildlife Management 71(6): 1917-1923. (2007) Phasianidae/ birds/ chordates/ vertebrates NAL Call #: 410 J827; ISSN: 0022-541X Abstract: As Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Descriptors: conservation measures/ ecology/ man-made contracts expire, many fields may be returned to habitat/ land zones/ Aves: habitat management/ field border agricultural production. Growing switchgrass (Panicum width/ effect on winter community structure/ community virgatum) as a biomass fuel is an alternative to returning structure/ winter community structure/ field border width fields to rowcrops. CRP fields provide winter cover for birds, effects/ cultivated land habitat/ field border width effects on but the harvest of biomass Would remove most of the cover winter community structure/ Mississippi/ Sunflower County/ and affect bird use of the fields. We estimated winter bird Aves/ birds/ chordates/ vertebrates abundances in nonharvested, total-harvested, and partially Abstract: Transformations of agricultural practices in the (strip) harvested switchgrass fields in southern Iowa. Song southeastern United States have drastically reduced sparrows (Melospiza melodia) were observed only in strip- preexisting quantities of strip-cover habitat along field harvested fields and ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus margins. The National Conservation Buffer Initiative has colchicus) were observed only in nonharvested fields and promoted the establishment of herbaceous field borders to uncut areas of strip-harvested fields. American tree restore wildlife benefits once provided by such habitat. We sparrows (Spizella arborea) were observed in all three evaluated effects of native warm-season grass field border treatments, but abundances were not significantly different establishment and width on winter bird response. Narrow among treatments. Tree sparrows, however, were observed (approx. 8-m) field borders represented a marginal more often in uncut strips of strip-harvested fields than in improvement to non-bordered margins that were cropped cut strips, with 87% of observations in strip-harvested fields ditch to ditch, whereas wide (approx. 30-m) borders in uncut strips. Abundances in strip-harvested fields were in significantly enhanced total avian conservation value, general higher than abundances in rowcrop and CRP abundance, species richness, and sparrow abundance plantings in other studies. Strip-harvested switchgrass compared to non- or narrow borders. Furthermore, fields may be more beneficial in winter than total-harvested presence of wide borders altered bird use of row-crop fields, rowcrop, or idle CRP fields for some bird species. fields. We observed increased sparrow (Emberizidae) © Thomson Reuters Scientific Grazing Lands 294. Above ground invertebrate responses to land dwelling (pitfall traps) communities were quantitatively management differences in a central Kansas grassland. sampled from June-September 1998 and 1999. The Jonas, J. L.; Whiles, M. R.; and Charlton, R. E. responses of the whole arthropod community and two focal Environmental Entomology 31(6): 1142-1152. (2002) groups, Coleopteran families and Orthopteran species, to NAL Call #: QL461.E532; ISSN: 0046225X three land use types (brome fields, old fields, and native Descriptors: biological assessment/ Coleoptera/ Indicator prairies) were examined. Vegetation analyses reflected species/ Orthoptera/ bioindicator/ biomonitoring/ community clear differences among land use types. Bromus inermis response/ community structure/ invertebrate/ land Leyss, an exotic grass, and Andropogon gerardii Vitman, a management/ community structure/ macroinvertebrate/ native grass, dominated brome fields and native prairie United States/ Andropogon gerardii/ Bromus inermis/ sites, respectively. Old fields were composed of a mixture Coleoptera/ Orthoptera of native and exotic plant species. Coleopteran family Abstract: This article describes macroinvertebrate richness and diversity were significantly greater in native communities in a central Kansas grassland that were prairies than brome fields (P < 0.05), whereas orthopteran examined to assess their responses to differences in land species richness and diversity peaked in brome fields. management and explore their viability for biological Diversity and richness of all arthropod groups examined assessment of grasslands. Canopy (drop-trap) and ground- were significantly, positively correlated with plant species 74 Terrestrial Habitats: Grazing Lands diversity and richness in drop-trap samples (P < 0.05). 296. Adaptive management of prairie grouse: How do Coleopteran family diversity and richness in pitfall samples we get there? were positively correlated with abundance of native plants, Aldridge, C. L.; Boyce, M. S.; and Baydack, R. K. but orthopteran species diversity and richness were Wildlife Society Bulletin 32(1): 92-103. (2004) negatively correlated with native plant abundance. NAL Call #: SK357.A1W5; ISSN: 00917648 Coleopteran and orthopteran responses to land use Descriptors: adaptive management/ Alberta/ Centrocercus appeared linked to differences in management practices. urophasianus/ conservation plans/ grazing/ greater sage- Whereas coleopterans appeared most influenced by plant grouse/ habitat/ Manitoba/ policy planning/ prairie sharp- community composition, orthopterans showed sensitivity to tailed grouse/ Tympanuchus phasianellus/ gamebird/ mechanical disturbance associated with haying on native grassland/ habitat conservation/ prairie/ species prairie. Plant and arthropod group diversities were not conservation/ wildlife management/ Canada/ Manitoba/ consistently correlated, demonstrating that arthropod North America/ Centrocercus urophasianus/ groups can reflect differences in a landscape that may not Tympanuchus phasianellus be apparent from examining plant communities alone. Abstract: Managing prairie grouse has been largely a © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. reactive process without any "true" management experiments being implemented, thereby limiting our ability 295. Abundance and diversity of small mammals in to learn from management and enhance conservation exotic and reseeded native grasslands at Oakwood efforts for declining prairie grouse populations. In a few Lakes State Park. cases where the potential existed for a passive or active Gardner, Dawn M.; Jensen, Kent C.; Higgins, Kenneth F.; adaptive approach, monitoring was insufficient to detect Hansen, Nicole K.; and Huehl, Abbigayil A. effects of changes in management practices. Similar Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science 84: problems appear to occur at planning stages in attempts to 109-117. (2005) implement adaptive management for prairie grouse NAL Call #: 500 So82; ISSN: 0096-378X populations, preventing proper consideration of sound Descriptors: conservation measures/ ecology/ community adaptive experiments that advance learning. Successful structure/ terrestrial habitat/ land zones/ Mammalia: habitat adaptive management begins with stakeholder gatherings management/ small taxa/ exotic grasslands/ reseeded following a policy planning process, which includes many grasslands/ relative abundance/ native grasslands/ species steps, beginning with goal identification and understanding diversity/ South Dakota/ Brookings County/ Oakwood Lakes of uncertainties and culminating in model simulations to Game Production Area/ Mammalia/ chordates/ mammals/ understand potential management policies. By following vertebrates this process, the opportunity to implement successful Abstract: Relative abundance and diversity of small management experiments can be enhanced. We discuss mammal populations in exotic and reseeded native the successes and failures of prairie grouse management grassland plots were evaluated during the fall of 2004 at using 2 case
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