Oak ecosystems support enormous biodiversity and yet are among the most endangered ecosystems in North America. These threatened natural areas lack the long-term study needed to understand their unique trajectories. This is particularly true in an ecosystem engineered by oaks that have lifespans of several hundred years. To address this, we developed a model for sustaining a small-scale, long-term research program in Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) habitat. Our research model spans ecological scales and experimentally assesses the interconnected effects of restoration across functional scales from tree physiology to community biodiversity. We describe here our approach to integrating monitoring into an educational framework to train undergraduates and sustain measures of trees, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mycorrhizae at a 22 ha research site. Our experimental design includes 64 mature oak trees and 60 cover objects for monitoring wildlife in 15 study plots. Three replicate plots are located in each of five habitat conditions: unmanaged oak savanna, oak savanna managed with cattle grazing, unmanaged conifer-oak forest, and two areas of oak woodland restored from overtopping conifers. Now in our eighth year of research, and with minimal funding (less than $4000 per year), this project has produced numerous professional posters and presentations and engaged hundreds of undergraduate students. Our approach to studying our local oak ecosystem is a model for how to achieve the needed balance between ecological scale, scientific rigor, and practical feasibility, to sustain and disseminate valuable streams of long-term ecological data on a critically endangered ecosystem.
Cascadia Prairie-Oak Partnership
Providing coordination for the technical prairie community in the Willamette Valley, Puget Trough, Georgia Basin (WPG) ecoregion and beyond.