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ASSESSING THE SUITABILITY OF WINDBREAKS AS WILDLIFE HABITAT - 1994 PILOT PLAN
Citation:
Hess, G. AND J. Bay. ASSESSING THE SUITABILITY OF WINDBREAKS AS WILDLIFE HABITAT - 1994 PILOT PLAN. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/620/R-94/023 (NTIS PB95129136), 1994.
Description:
The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program's (EMAP) Agroecosystem Resource Group is developing a program to monitor and evaluate the ecological condition of United States agricultural lands. indbreaks are an important non-crop element in the Great Plains, an extensive agricultural landscape. lthough 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. his 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.The pilot study will be conducted in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). uring June, 1994, NASS enumerators will collect information about the location of windbreaks in Nebraska. his information will be used to draw a probability sample of windbreaks. ASS enumerators will visit the sample windbreaks later in the year and collect the data needed to calculate the Bird Species Richness Index for windbreaks including; windbreak area, average height of the tallest row of trees in the windbreak, foliage height diversity, and snag density. n associated wildlife Habitat Suitability Index can also be calculated from these data. ollow-up visit to the sample windbreaks is planned for the Spring, 1995, to survey the birds present and test the Bird Species Richness Index.
