Wildlife response to riparian and wetland restoration in the Yuma East Wetlands, AZ

Restoration is a relatively new management approach and the effects of restoration treatments on wildlife community recovery are still poorly understood. As riparian and wetland habitat restoration is burgeoning on the lower Colorado River (LCR), there is a need to obtain information on wildlife recovery in these areas to develop success criteria that can be used to evaluate and adjust restoration practices. To fulfill this need, we have initiated research to look at invertebrate and avian community and sensitive species recovery in restored wetland and riparian habitats within the Yuma East Wetlands Restoration Project, Arizona. This is an ideal location to conduct this research because it is comprised of over 1,400 acres of wetland and riparian habitat on the LCR, with currently over 300 acres under different phases of restoration. The avian community will be monitored every other month for two years using radial point counts. One transect with six points at least 250m apart will be established in restored, control, and reference wetland and riparian habitats. Reference habitats will be located at the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge. The aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate community will be monitored three times a year for two years using a malaise trap (set for 12hrs) and timed area searches. Ordination analysis will be utilized to determine recovery of diversity and analysis of variance and linear regressions will be used to determine site differences. Research was initiated March 2007, and this talk will discuss the preliminary results of this project.