Funding Agency: US Army Corps of Engineers

Project Team: Kusum Naithani, Jennifer Mortensen, Jennifer Ogle, and Caleb Roberts

Students: Alexis O'Callahan

Abstract: Habitat quality plays a crucial role in determining the plant and avian species diversity in an ecosystem. Prior work has shown that high-quality habitats provide suitable conditions for a wide variety of plant and animal species to thrive, while low-quality habitats may only support a limited number of species or may not be suitable for any desirable species to survive. Overall, habitat quality plays a crucial role in maintaining and promoting plant and avian species diversity, and efforts to protect and restore high-quality habitats are essential for preserving biodiversity. With an overarching goal of aiding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to make informed conservation and land management decisions, we propose: 1) to conduct botanical surveys and habitat assessments to determine presence/absence of state and federally listed and proposed plant species as well as habitat quality; and 2) to conduct bird surveys during spring migration, fall migration, and the breeding season to document presence, density, and distribution of listed species and regional species of concern.