Wildlife Baseline Survey: Illinois Army National Guard, Sparta, Illinois
Abstract
The Illinois Army National Guard (ILARNG) is acquiring a new 2800-acre reclaimed strip mine as a training area near Sparta, Illinois. This acquisition is important in that it allows the National Guard units in southern Illinois a readily available place to train, which will increase training effectiveness and save time and money through decreased travel costs associated with using the existing training area in the northern part of the state. Training importance is further enhanced by the existence of three diverse natural ecosystems, thereby offering variety of training. The recent acquisition of the Sparta training area represents a unique opportunity to gather baseline data before any training takes place. This valuable data will give the Army the opportunity to learn about the conditions before and after training as well as strengthening any future empirically collected research data. This represents a fundamental knowledge gap in much of the current research on Army lands and represents a high priority, high payoff area of research. The three ecosystems-riparian forest, upland plains, and lakes-were surveyed for birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians in accordance with generally approved method. Winter, spring and summer surveys were conducted to determine species present and relative abundance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA430851
Entities
People
- Don Pitts
- Jonathan L. Casebeer
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center