My name is Doreen Mengel and my masters’ project involves assessing Wetland Reserve Program restoration efforts as measured by occupancy of amphibian metamorphs. My advisor is David Galat.

The goal of the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) is “to achieve the greatest wetland functions and values, along with optimum wildlife habitat, on every acre enrolled in the program.” A key unanswered question is to what extent is this goal being achieved? Approximately 125 WRP tracts are located within the Lower Grand River basin, north central Missouri. We identified three management strategies applied to these WRP tracts over time: walkaways, maximize hydrology, and naturalistic; the latter emphasizing restoring process as well as structure. Amphibians enable quantifying the WRP goal due to their life history requirements and explicit incorporation of their habitat needs into WRP plans. Research objectives are to determine (1) if relative species richness of amphibians varies between the three management strategies, and (2) proportion of area occupied by selected metamorphic amphibian species whose life history requirements span the continuum from ephemeral to permanent wetland conditions. Assessing wetland restoration efforts by linking amphibian habitat requirements to the role WRP tracts play in meeting these needs provides an ecological basis to evaluate the success of WRP restoration efforts. Results will assist making informed decisions regarding future management directions and allocation of limited resources.