| |
|
|
Natural Resources:
Introduction Rules Forests Fish Wildlife Partnerships
WILDLIFE |
Restoration Ecology at Mansfield Hollow
Center Co-director Dave Wagner, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), and a cadre of EEB graduate students and UConn alumni have been working to restore a pitch pine-scrub oak barren below Mansfield Hollow Dam. Efforts to date have included several plant and animal surveys, development of a management plan by the Yale School of Forestry, raising of a deer-exclusion fence, the clearing of several acres of canopy oak forest, and efforts to curb ATV traffic on the 40 acres of land owned by the ACE. The Connecticut Audubon Society is working to have this site added to its list of “Important Bird Areas” in the state.
A major thrust this past year has been to restore plants that were formerly more common in the area or in other barrens around the state. In May of 2003, EEB alum Greg Shenk (below) and a crew of volunteers planted more than 500 Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) (right) plants on the property that Greg had started from seeds gathered the previous season. More than half of the 500 planted seedlings survived, and some even bloomed and produced seed this past May. 2004’s cool wet summer greatly benefited many of the lupines -- a few of which are now more than 30 cm in diameter. With over 200 surviving stems, the Mansfield Hollow Dam population is now among the largest Wild Lupine populations in southern New England!
This past spring, Dave Wagner, along with EEB graduates Krissa Skogen and Bryan Connolly (M.S., 2000) collected cuttings of two other declining plants: New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americana) and Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). For the latter, the trio had to travel to a pine barren in western Rhode Island. Cuttings were rooted and grown in the new EEB greenhouse facility. The team expects to transplant nearly 150 Bearberry and 300 New Jersey Tea plants this coming spring at the Mansfield barren.
There are additional motives…recall Wagner is a lepidopterist. The three plants targeted for restoration were not randomly selected. Lupine is the foodplant of three globally rare butterflies: the Frosted Elfin Butterfly (Callophry irus) (right), the Karner Blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), and Persius Duskywing (Erynnis persius persius). The Frosted Elfin is already present on the ACE land in Windham, so it will benefit immediately from the lupine restoration effort. New Jersey Tea and Bearberry are the foodplants for two of Connecticut’s (three) extirpated butterflies the Mottled Skipper (Erynnis martialis) and the Hoary Elfin Butterfly (Callophrys polios). As early as 2005, the Center may apply to the State of Connecticut for permits that would allow the reintroduction of these butterflies, lost jewels of Connecticut’s natural heritage. If you would be interested in volunteering time or resources toward this effort please contact Dave Wagner (david.wagner@uconn.edu).
| 
