"Cascading Effects of Open Oak Woodland Restoration on Forest Arthropods and Songbirds"

Woodland restoration offers an important opportunity for ensuring the persistence of native Wisconsin biodiversity. However, understanding how open woodland management treatments, such as prescribed fire and tree thinning, effect forest species can be challenging. In this talk, I will describe a muti-trophic field study in the Baraboo Hills (Sauk Co., WI) aimed at understanding the effects of oak woodland management on understory microclimates, plant communities, forest arthropods, and insectivorous birds. Results from the first two field seasons indicate that a wide variety of songbirds may be benefitting from increases in forest arthropod biomass due to woodland management. I am looking forward to discussing this unique habitat type and the rich biodiversity it supports, as well as highlighting how woodland restoration can play a part in bird conservation in southern Wisconsin.