Biodiversity
One hope of the Lake Restoration Project is that the diversity of charismatic animal groups (like songbirds, butterflies, and dragonflies) will increase in response to the greater plant and habitat diversity in the lake environment. In changing the habitat from a monoculture of turfgrass to a mixture of wildflower meadows, rain gardens, and aquatic plants, we hope to attract a greater variety of animals to our campus habitat.
this year, one group of Ecology students began a survey of "songbirds" in the three vegetation zones that now occur around the lake: mown lawns, regrown vegetation, and the restored wildflower meadows. A link to their report appears, below:
The Effect of the Lake Restoration Project on Passerine Bird Diversity
Gina Tong, Brittany Martin, Stephanie Field, Whitney Snow, Whitney Millegan, and Chris Cowart