Relating Grassland Restoration Outcomes to Grassland Bird Abundance in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
Presented by Jaron Cook, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
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Tallgrass prairie is among the most endangered ecosystems in the world, and the grassland birds that depend on this habitat have been precipitously declining for at least the past 50 years. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has demonstrated promise as an avenue for grassland bird conservation, but the connection between grassland restoration outcomes and recreation of grassland bird habitat is still poorly understood. During the growing seasons of 2023 and 2024, we measured plant community composition and bird abundance on 33 unique grasslands in the Tallgrass Prairie Region in western Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas: 11 low-diversity CRP practices, 11 high-diversity CRP practices, and 11 remnant prairies. The abundance of 10 grassland bird species was positively associated with alpha diversity, beta diversity, and mean coefficient of conservatism at the sampled grasslands. Because these plant community metrics are, in part, consequences of grassland restoration practice, these findings are promising for linking habitat restoration practice to grassland bird conservation.