OutdoorNebraska

Continued from page 1 grazing management, prescribed fire, and re-seeding crop ground back to prairie. When we conserve and restore ABB habitat, we are also conserving and restoring habitat for a wide variety of native birds and mammals. Surveys are a tool to evaluate if conservation efforts are working. After beetle broods have emerged in August, biologists bait buckets with carrion, count the beetles that become trapped in the bucket, then release them. Surveys help us learn about ABB habitat preferences. Long-term, regular surveys can alert us to sudden changes in population, which might indicate risks to associated natural communities. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and researchers at Oklahoma State University, University of Nebraska Kearney, and University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) have conducted long-term monitoring for ABB in the Loess Canyons Biologically Unique Landscape (BUL) since 2007 and the Elkhorn River Headwaters BUL since 2014. We started an additional long-term monitoring route in the Middle Niobrara BUL in 2019. Alison Ludwig, a graduate student at UNL, is studying long-term survey data in the Loess Canyons. She has found that ABB in that BUL favor healthy grasslands and avoid dense cedar encroachment. Her work has confirmed that ABB populations are responding positively to conservation i n i t i a t ive s a n d the work of local p re s c r i b e d f i re associations to control cedar encroachment and improve grassland health. N e b r a s k a ' s populations of ABB are contributing to re introduction efforts for the species beyond the state's borders. Since 2015, Nebraska biologists have sent 286 ABB to a recovery team in Ohio to increase genetic diversity in their reintroduction p r o g r a m . Yo u can support ABB conservation by donating to the Wildlife Conservation Fund or volunteering with your local Nebraska Game and Parks Commission office. 4 2 American Burying Beetles... Historic and current range of the American Burying Beetle (USFWS, 2004) GAO ANALYSIS OF U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE DOCUMENTS; MAP RESOURCES, GAO-17-154 Surveys for the American burying beetle are teaching us what the species needs to thrive in Nebraska. JEN CORMAN, NORTHERN PRAIRIES

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