MONITORING GRASSLAND BIRD AND BUTTERFLY POPULATIONS

Megan Kranz McGuire, University of Minnesota, St. Croix National Scenic Riverway

This presentation will describe a research project of the St. Croix Scenic Riverway (NPS) at a grassland site along the river near Taylor’s Falls. The NPS plans to burn and reseed this site, which currently lacks vegetation diversity and contains several invasive species. To measure the impact of their restoration efforts, the park will compare data on the populations of birds and butterflies before and after the restoration. This summer I completed the first year of monitoring, and I will be describing my methods, results, and conclusions from the data I collected on both butterfly populations and bird populations. The research has provided a species list for the site, as well as an estimation of relative population sizes. Bird and butterfly species preferences and species diversity were compared with the vegetation type and diversity at within the grassland.