The Trust’s research is focused on understanding how birds use our grasslands and wetlands and on gaining a better understanding of bird’s requirements needed to survive and maintain high levels of reproductive effort.  Because the Trust manages large acreages of land our research also focuses on evaluating how different land management strategies may affect native vegetation and crane and other bird distribution and productivity. The Trust recognizes the importance of hydrology in maintaining grasslands and wetlands in the Platte River Valley and focuses its research to better understand this connection.

What habitat does a species require? What are the characteristics and components of high quality habitat? How can habitat be restored, maintained and conserved so it best meets the needs of wildlife? These are just a few of the questions that the Trust has been and currently is trying to answer with research. Some current research projects include the distribution and habitat use of sandhill cranes and whooping cranes during the spring migration, evaluation of wet meadow restoration techniques, hydrology of wet meadows, breeding bird and wintering bird use of Platte River habitat, effects of hydrology on animal populations in wetlands and sloughs in riparian meadows, and distribution of fish among river habitats.

Ongoing Research Projects (started in previous years)

CRANES

• Sandhill crane spring migration counts and roosting locations and habitat use surveys (10^th year, 6th year modified).
• A database of all information on banded whooping cranes collected during the last 30 years of  migration records by Nebraska USFWS.
• Migration dynamics of banded and unbanded whooping cranes: Patterns of habitat use, survival, and social structure, with emphasis on use of the Platte River in  Nebraska and river maintenance.
• Support development of whooping demographic analysis for model simulation of           population dynamic, including factors during migrations not included before.

GRASSLAND BIRDS

• Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship in relation to management treatment of grasslands (6^th year).
• Effects of grassland management on productivity of nesting grassland birds in the Central Platte River Valley (4th year).
• Correlation between grassland management and body condition of male Bobolinks (4th year).
• Evaluation of Avian diversity and productivity in restored grasslands.
• Factors determining home range size for female Brown-headed Cowbirds (2^nd year)
• Evaluating the effect of 3 grazing strategies on biodiversity and livestock operations economics of Platte River mixed grass prairie (2^nd year).
• Effects of cowbird parasitism on sex-ratio of nestling bobolinks
• Nutritional composition of prairie insects assessed via total calories, fat, and elemental analyses.  (analyses conducted at Henry Doorly Zoo)
• Effects of supplemental food to breeding ecology of Grasshopper Sparrows
• Patterns of nest parasitism inferred through cowbird egg morphology

ECOSYSTEM

• Conceptual Ecological Model for Central Platte River Ecosystem, based on relationships between food, habitats and wildlife
• An analytical simulation model of the relationships between wet-meadow vegetation, water resource and wildlife.

New research projects

External Research Projects (Trust staff not involved but project on our lands)

• River otter radio-telemetry project. River otters are being trapped on Trust ponds and are being tracked.