PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 50: Restoration Management and Modeling
Tuesday, August 9, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 521 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Selecting landscape composition targets during restoration of degraded oak savannas.

Grundel, Ralph^*,1, Pavlovic, Noel¹, ¹ U.S. Geological Survey, Porter, Indiana, USA

ABSTRACT- Oak savanna was a common component of ecosystems in the Midwest United States at the time of European settlement but is now rare. Today a gradient of habitat types has replaced oak savanna in conservation areas in northwest Indiana, USA. We surveyed birds along this gradient and assessed the conservation value, for birds, of each of the major habitat types along this gradient. We used this information to model how valuable, for conservation of birds, different combinations of the current habitat types would be. Preferred habitat combinations represented a tradeoff between setting a restoration goal of managing for species diversity and of managing for more threatened species.

Key words: restoration goal model, oak savanna