Illinois Natural History Survey Reports

              1
R e p o r t s
Winter 2008
No. 394
Sharing Biodiversity
Data: Opportunities for
Collaboration
2
Bioenergetics of Invasive
Asian Carps
3
Recent INHS
Publications and
Educational Materials
4
Species Spotlight:
Long-eared Owl
6
The Naturalist's
Apprentice: Dissect an
Owl Pellet
7
INSIDE
Co-author Ben O'Neal con-ducting
a waterfowl survey
at a successful wetland
restoration site along the
La Moine River in Schuyler
County. Photo courtesy of Helen
O'Neal Continued on back page
Although many of the original
wetland areas in the lower 48
states of the U.S. have been lost,
progress has been made in recent
decades to reduce additional loss
and restore wetlands through-out
the Midwest. Conservation
programs on private land have
been one of the best strategies for
the recovery of valuable wetland
acreage. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture introduced the
Conservation Reserve Enhance-ment
Program (CREP) in 1998,
forming partnerships with state
and nongovernmental organiza-tions
to address specific regional
priorities.
Since the inception
of CREP, over 37,000
ha of land have been
enrolled in wetland
practices nationwide.
The Illinois River wa-tershed
has benefited
greatly, with 14,000
ha enrolled in wetland
practices ranging from
discrete seeps to large
marshes. Wetlands
enrolled in CREP pro-vide
many ecological
functions, but may be
p a r - ticularly important as
habitat for migrant and resident
waterbirds; however, their use as
stopover and breeding sites and
factors associated with their use
have not been evaluated.
Evaluating Waterbird Use of Wetlands
Restored through the Conservation
Reserve Enhancement Program
We surveyed a random sample
of CREP wetlands in the Illinois
River watershed in 2004 and
2005 to quantify use of restored
wetlands by spring migrating and
breeding waterbirds. Sites were
dispersed throughout the water-sheds
of the Illinois, LaMoine,
Spoon, and Sangamon rivers, and
fell within the Western Forest-
Prairie, Illinois River Bottom-lands,
and Grand Prairie natural
divisions. Seventy-five percent of
wetlands supported use by water-birds
during spring migration.
Total number of use-days (a mea-sure
of how much each wetland is
used by birds: 1 bird on a wetland
for 1 day is 1 use-day) for the en-tire
spring migration ranged from
0 to 49,633 per wetland and aver-aged
6,437 ± 1887 (SE). Semi-permanent
wetlands supported
the greatest total number of use-days
and the greatest number of
use-days relative to wetland area.
Species richness ranged from 0
to 42 (× = 10.0 ± 1.5 [SE]), and 7
of these species were classified as
endangered in Illinois. Dabbling
ducks were the most abundant
guild of waterbird (69% of
individuals recorded), followed
by diving ducks (9%), shorebirds
(5%), Rails and Coots (5%),
and geese (5%). The density of
Lotus bed at Kelly Lake in Schuyler County. This restored wetland
complex was the largest multi-stakeholder CREP project in the state.
Photo by Ben O'Neal, INHS Division of Ecology and Conservation Sciences
150 years 1858 to 2008