Mike Lange at Brazoria NWR is our FWS contact for this work, which was requested in a letter from Ron Bisbee, Project Manager for the Brazoria, San Bernard and Big Boggy NWR Complex. Wylie and Mike have established 43 locations in the Dance Bayou Tract where seasonal point counts are taken. Virginia Burkett at NWRC also provided guidance to Mike in establishing a hardwood nursery at Brazoria NWR, to provide seedlings for various regeneration projects that he is undertaking with volunteer groups. Breeding birds were monitored for 4 years and wintering birds for 3 yrs. Vegetation structure and species composition was measured within 50m radius plots at each point count station.
Analyses are underway to determine bird-vegetation relations at all sites.
If funds become available, a similar analysis will be conducted in Columbia bottomlands, Texas. The data, to the extent possible, will be used to guide reforestation efforts for the tract. This project entailed several trips to the tract and the State Lands Office in Baton Rouge. The goal was to develop a protocol to determine important food plants and special habitat features in these remnant bottomland forests to fall migrating landbirds. If a full study is funded, results will be used by state and federal agencies and NGOs for restoration planning in coastal hardwood forests of the Gulf of Mexico.