Student: Kate Drahota
Capstone Presentation: Conservation Plan Development for Ecological Services Provided by Wet Prairie Land
Date and Time: October 29, 2019 at 1:00 pm Central
Location: Online https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/7ff416bac6694c95b39b8750c9b24f02
As a volunteer for a local Conservation District and in consultation with a private landowner, land management strategies were explored toward the development of a long-term conservation plan. The SWAPA+H model was used to identify the landowner’s resource concerns as per the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s nine-step conservation planning process. Resource concerns include a decreasing duration of meadow saturation and vernal pool presence, beaver reintroduction, habitat for Greater Sandhill Cranes and Mardon Skipper butterflies, and a reduction of native species while invasive species increase. Management goals strive towards the landowner’s vision of a wet meadow sanctuary protected from future development, timber sales, recreation, hunting, and trespass beyond her lifetime.