Return to Wildland Fire
Return to Northern Bobwhite site
Return to Working Lands for Wildlife site
Return to Working Lands for Wildlife site
Return to SE Firemap
Return to the Landscape Partnership Literature Gateway Website
RETURN TO LANDSCAPE PARTNERSHIP SITE
return to main site

Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Sections

Personal tools

You are here: Home

Modified items

All recently modified items, latest first.
American Black Duck Events Next 30 days
 
American Black Duck Events
Add American Black Duck events here. Please tag events "American Black Duck".
Training Resources
 
Screening & Ranking
 
Other Guidance
 
Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Guide (WHEG)
 
Job Sheets
 
Conservation Practices
 
NRCS Conservation Practices & Materials
 
Maps and Spatial Data
 
Information Materials
 
Screening & Ranking
 
Outcomes from NRCS Golden-winged Warbler Conservation Efforts
Over the past decade, NRCS has been working with landowners and partners to improve forest health and provide young forest habitat for golden-winged warblers and associated early successional wildlife species. These efforts have been carried out under the banner of Working Lands for Wildlife in Appalachia and through a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Since 2012, the CEAP Wildlife Component has supported outcome-based assessments of this work in partnership with the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Research Institute (IUPRI), American Bird Conservancy, Cornell University and many others. In response to interest by NRCS state and local personnel involved in golden-winged warbler conservation work, CEAP Wildlife provided a briefing via teleconference on what has been learned through the years of monitoring and provided perspective on science-based program delivery. In this briefing, Dr. Jeff Larkin of IUPRI highlighted key findings and outcomes generated from these efforts.
Webinars and Instructional Videos
 
Other Guidance
 
Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Guide (WHEG)
WLFW uses WHEGs to evaluation before and after conditions anticipated from a contract.
Job Sheets
 
warbler-images
 
nrcseprd1288210.png
 
Regional abundance and local breeding productivity explain occupancy of restored habitats in a migratory songbird
Ecological restoration is a key tool in offsetting habitat loss that threatens biodiversity worldwide, but few projects are rigorously evaluated to determine if conservation objectives are achieved. We tested whether restoration outcomes for an imperiled bird, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera; GWWA) met the assumptions of the ‘Field of Dreams’ hypothesis or whether local and regional population dynamics impacted restoration success. From 2015 to 18, we surveyed 514 points located in recently restored successional habitats. We used new- and published data on the survival of 341 nests and 258 fledglings to estimate GWWA breeding productivity. Occupancy and colonization of restored habitats were significantly higher in our Western Study Region (Minnesota and Wisconsin) than our Eastern Study Region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey), a pattern that mirrored broader regional population trends. At local scales, productivity was high in Eastern Pennsylvania (> 3 independent juveniles/pair/year) but low in Central Pennsylvania (1 juvenile/pair/year) while both Western and Central Minnesota hosted intermediate productivity (between 1 and 2 juveniles/pair/ year). Productivity and occupancy covaried locally in the Eastern Study Region, while occupancy was high in the Western Study Region, despite intermediate productivity. These differences have profound implications for restoration outcomes, as GWWA possessed robust capacity to respond to habitat restoration in both regions, but this capacity was conditional upon local productivity where the species is rare. Our findings suggest that, even when restoration efforts are focused on a single species and use comparable prescriptions, interactions among processes governing habitat selection, settlement, and productivity can yield variable restoration outcomes.