PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #13: Restoration Ecology.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. Presentation from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM. Exhibition Hall

Butterflies as a measure of success for planting native prairie on Conservation Reserve Program parcels.

LLOYD, MATT¹, KLEINTJES, PAULA¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- We used butterflies as indicators for assessing habitat quality of native versus traditional planting of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) parcels. In 1997, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS-USDA) in Eau Claire County, WI, began offering cost-share incentives to landowners willing to plant native species on their CRP property. In addition to reducing soil erosion, it was assumed that these native plantings would improve habitat quality for wildlife compared to traditional CRP plantings. To test this assumption, we assessed butterfly species richness and abundance using a modified Pollard-Yates census technique on twenty randomly selected parcels. Abundance and composition of vegetation was also measured. The sites (0.8ha-3.38 ha) included four planted with a traditional species mix in 1998 and four in 1999, four planted with a native species mix in 1998 and four in 1999 and four prairie remnants. As predicted we found the greatest number of butterflies and species on native planted sites, with the highest numbers recorded in August (17spp/837 butterflies). Traditional sites supported slightly fewer species and half the number of butterflies as did native sites. The greatest number of species per total counted (10spp/26 butterflies) was on remnants in June and the remnants also contained the most species unique to the site. Abundance of butterflies was positively associated with abundance and richness of flowering forbs on the native planted sites, especially in August when mature plants provided nectar for adult butterflies.

KEY WORDS: butterflies, CRP, prairie restoration