Review and download Chapter 3 - Golden-winged Warbler Working ...

CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY
This plan (Chapter 3 of the overall Conservation Plan) outlines goals, objectives, and actions needed for
the effective conservation of Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) on its breeding grounds.
The plan is written primarily for conservation planners and land managers, but will also be useful to
policy makers, scientists, and representatives from agencies and industry. The basis for the breeding
grounds conservation strategy is the delineation of focal areas where stabilizing and ultimately restoring
Golden-winged Warbler populations will occur. These focal areas are delineated based on current and
historic distribution, hybridization risk, and current and future management potential. Habitat and
population goals are stepped down from the region to the focal area to provide managers with
conservation targets at a local scale. Land ownership and potential partners for each focal area are also
identified.
Management for Golden-winged Warbler habitat must occur at multiple spatial scales, ranging from the
landscape to the patch or stand, to even within the patch. At each spatial scale, Golden-winged
Warblers respond to the structure and composition of available habitat. Golden-winged Warblers occur
largely in forested landscapes, within which varying conditions can occur that support breeding
populations, including habitats derived from forest management, wetland habitats, and habitats in a
variety of upland settings undergoing succession after grazing, strip mining, or field abandonment. At
the patch scale, Golden-winged Warbler habitat is comprised of a dynamic combination of herbaceous
elements (grasses and forbs), woody shrubs/saplings, and open mature hardwood trees. Within a
territory, the habitat elements are distributed in fine-scale clumps. Nest sites typically occur in a variety
of grasses and forbs that form clumps for secure nest placement on the ground. This plan contains
habitat guidelines that outline the range of conditions, leading to desired habitat structure and
composition. Techniques to maintain, create, or restore these conditions are also described, including
the use of forest management, prescribed fire, mowing and brush-hogging, and grazing.
Success of the conservation strategy will be assessed through a coordinated monitoring program. This
monitoring program will track the key components of the conservation strategy, including acres
managed for Golden-winged Warbler, population response at multiple spatial scales, and changes in
levels of genetic introgression within populations.
Additionally, Chapter 1 of the Golden-winged Warbler Status Review and Conservation Plan contains
detailed information on the biology and ecology of the species and an overall review of its population
status at multiple scales. Chapter 2 provides rationale and explicit goals and objectives of the Goldenwinged
Warbler Working Group's full life cycle conservation strategy for the species. A glossary of
commonly used terminology appears in Appendix A, while Appendix B provides a list of supplementary
resources.
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