Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Texas
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Texas Project


OA 90: Avian Community Response to Brush Control on the Welder Wildlife Refuge: Phase II

January 2018 - December 2020


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Welder Wildlife Foundation

Grassland obligate birds are experiencing widespread population declines across North America. Despite widespread prairie restoration efforts, little evaluation has been made as to the success of coastal prairie restoration in terms of avian community structure.

The coastal prairie of the Texas coast have experienced extensive brushland encroachment and prairie loss. Efforts to restore coastal prairie grasslands and the natural avian communities has been overlooked.

We are partnering with the Welder Wildlife Foundation to address this issue.

Our data will provide insights as to the success of different brush control methods to restore prairie, whether or not natural avian communities can be restored, and if so, what the lag periods for avian community restoration may be.

Presentations Presentation Date
Malone, D.R., C.W. Boal, and T.L. Blankenship. Greater Roadrunner Habitat Selection in a Coastal Prairie-Brushland Mosaic: Implications for Coastal Prairie Restoration. North American Ornithological Conference VII, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 10-15 August 2020 August 2020
Malone, D.R., C.W. Boal, and T.L. Blankenship. 2020. Home Range and Habitat Selection of the Greater Roadrunner on the Welder Wildlife Refuge. Meeting of the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Corpus Christi, TX, 14 February 2020. February 2020