Assessing the Suitability of Windbreaks as Wildlife Habitat. 1994 Pilot Plan.Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program

摘要

The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program's (EMAP) AgroecosystemsReosurce Group is developing a program to monitor and evaluate the ecological condition of United States Agricultural lands. Windbreaks are an important non-crop element in the Great Plains, an extensive agricultural landscape. Although planted to protect fields, crops, livestock, and farmsteads from the prevailing winds, windbreaks also provide some of the scarce wooded habitat for birds and other wildlife. This document describes the plan for a pilot study that focuses on the potential biodiversity value of windbreaks in the Great Plains, and is designed to test the feasibility of applying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Bird Species Richness Index for windbreaks on a regional basis. An associated Wildlife Habitat Suitability Index can also be calculated from these data. A follow-up visit to the sample windbreaks is planned for the Spring, 1995, to survey the birds present and test the Bird Species Richness Index.