Grassland Ecology And Wildlife Management

Grassland and their history; Classification of grassland communities in Britain; Grassland and scrub as ecological systems; The grassland ecosystem: botanical characteristic and conservation interest; Zoological characteristics and interest of the grassland ecosystem; Ecological characteristics and classification of scrub communities; Some concepts of grassland management; Management and grazing; Management and mowing; The use of fire, fertilizers and herbicides in management; The management of scrub; The recording and measurement of management methods.

Following the destruction of 95% of meadows during the twentieth century, there is an urgent need to understand what little unspoiled habitat remains in order to plan the management and restoration of existing sites, as well as re-creating future grassland habitats. This book is a much-needed guide to grassland restoration and management. Providing a thorough overview of recent research on grassland restoration and its implications for practical grassland restoration and management, it introduces grassland communities and the wildlife they support, including examples of species of conservation concern, and considers the management of semi-natural grassland habitats with particular emphasis on drier grassland habitats. Chapters cover: - Grassland character and communities - Introduction to grassland wildlife - Managing semi-natural grassland - Grassland restoration – threats and challenges - Opportunities in grassland restoration - Plant material for grassland restoration - Defining success in grassland restoration. A variety of management techniques are examined, including soil amendment, cultivation, harvesting and maintenance in creating suitable conditions for the successful restoration of species-rich grasslands. It is essential reading for conservationists, site owners or managers, practitioners, conservation organizations and students of ecological restoration with an interest in the creation of new grassland habitats, the restoration of semi-natural grassland, as well as the continuing management of semi-natural (unimproved) grassland communities.

"Volume 2 (this volume) describes wildlife and fish species, their habitat requirements, and species-specific management concerns, in Southwestern grasslands. This assessment is regional in scale and pertains primarily to lands administered by the Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service (Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, and western Oklahoma)."--Abstract.

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae) and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants (forbs). Plants of the sedge (Cyperacae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be frequent in grasslands. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica, and in many other areas they have replaced the natural vegetation due to human influence. In temperate latitudes, such as north-west Europe, grasslands are dominated by perennial species, whereas in warmer climates annual species form a greater component of the vegetation. Grasslands can be found in most terrestrial climates. Grassland vegetation can vary in height from very short, as in chalk downland where the vegetation may be less than 30 cm high, to quite tall, as in the case of North American tallgrass prairie, South American grasslands and African savannah. Woody plants, shrubs or trees, may occur on some grasslands - forming wooded, scrubby or semi-wooded grassland, such as the African savannahs or the Iberian dehesa. Such grasslands are sometimes referred to as wood-pasture or Savannah woodland. Grasslands cover nearly fifty percent of the land surface of the continent of Africa. This book gathers new and important research from around the world in this field.

"This publication is the result of a half-day symposium, "Ecology, management, and sustainability of western grassland ecosystems" held at The Wildlife Society's First Annual Technical Conference, September 22-26, 1994 in Albuquerque, NM. The purpose of the symposium was to review and synthesize information about the structure, function, and components of steppe and desert grassland ecosystems in the western United States with special emphasis on the ecological roles and requirements of wildlife species. This work, designed to draw attention to some wildlife topics that have been particularly neglected for western grasslands, represents a cross-section of the papers orally presented at the symposium as well as some additional papers solicited afterwards. To provide a quality product, a minimum of two peer reviews were solicited for each manuscript, and authors were instructed to revise manuscripts based on editor's and referees' comments. Land managers, range conservationists, wildlife biologists, ecologists, and private citizens interested in sustaining the ecological health, productivity, and biological diversity of western grassland ecosystems should find this publication valuable."