Speaker Madilyn Odiorne will present on the topic of “Bird Use of a Prairie Restoration Site in Eastern Washington.” This is an online-only event over Zoom. For details on connecting to the meeting, visit the Monthly Meetings page a week or two before the meeting.
Prairies and other grassland ecosystems are in decline worldwide due to factors such as agriculture, climate change and fossil fuel extraction. Among the organisms affected are avian grassland groups, shown to have declined 50% since the 1960s. As birds are widely recognized to be important indicators of ecosystem health, this project aims to estimate baseline abundance and diversity of birds at two contrasting sites: an intact prairie remnant (Magnuson Butte) and a restoration site on the Eastern Washington University (EWU) campus. It is hoped that results will inform future efforts and shed light on the benefits of restoring native grasslands locally and worldwide.