Abstract:
USDA programs available to private landowners can play a role in preventing wildlife
declines through land use change. In the Fall of 2006 through a family decision, with the goal of
improving wildlife on my grandparent’s 60 acre farm located in Switzerland County, Indiana,
two contracts were signed, one being a WHIP contract and the other being a CP-33 contract
both funded by the USDA. Both contracts involved planting native, warm season grasses with
different seed mixtures and rates on two adjacent sites with one being a pasture landscape
(WHIP) and a crop field (CP-33). The WHIP contract also included a shrub or tree planting
component on two types of sites: a wetland site and other areas throughout the pasture. For
both contracts, everything was completed in the Spring of 2007 following Natural Resource
Conservation Service (NRCS) guidelines, along with an Indiana Wildlife Biologist's plan for the
farm. Since the completion of the contracts, additional shrub planting has occurred every year
up to the Spring of 2010. Since the establishment phase of these two contracts, my family
started the mid-contract management aspect in the Spring of 2010 outlined in both contracts
by the NRCS and Biologist's plan and will continue this practice in the Spring of 2011. The goal
of this study is to determine if the habitat change on this farm will increase species richness for
both wildlife and plants through land use change funded by two USDA programs, by comparing
before contracts and after contracts on the family farm.
