Mingo National Wildlife Refuge protects the largest remaining bottomland hardwood forest in southeastern Missouri. Supported by donations from the Fund’s voluntary carbon offset program, Go Zero®, we restored 367 acres of walnut, hickory, oak and cypress trees at Mingo NWR. As the forest matures, it is expected to trap an estimated 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is equivalent to taking approximately 18,000 cars off the road. Learn more about the project here: goo.gl/y3WlIL. One very exciting - and Halloween appropriate! - aspect of the Go Zero project is that it has increased forest connectivity at Mingo NWR and thereby improved and expanded Indiana bat habitat. It has accomplished this by increasing the amount of continuous vegetation in riparian zones. Brad Pendley, a Refuge Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Mingo NWR had this to say about the Go Zero work at the refuge: Currently, our Go Zero Plots are serving as early successional habitat and as forest gaps for many bat species like the hoary, red, big-brown and silver-hair bats. These openings are typically used for foraging and play an important role in the spring, summer and early fall. The bats will forage out over the young trees and will also utilize the edge between the plots and mature forests. As the Go Zero trees age, we will see a change in the species utilizing the stands to those that roost in older trees such as the northern long-eared and Indiana bats. We hope to monitor this shift in species through our mobile acoustical monitoring efforts.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 00:00:01 +0000
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