The goal of the project is to determine biodiversity impacts of land restoration associated with clean and renewable energy development; specifically, natural gas production through anaerobic digestion of hog manure and native plant material, as being forwarded by Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) and Smithfield Foods. RAE has the stated goal of scaling up to restore 30 million acres across the Midwestern U.S., but quantitative data in support of their claims of beneficial impacts on biodiversity are currently lacking. This research seeks to fill this gap.
This specific project will be conducted on Smithfield Food’s Ruckman Farm located near Albany, Missouri. Ruckman Farm is now covered in exotic cool‐season grasses, but 220 ac of the farm will be converted to diverse, native plant cover in 2017. Funding provided through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be used by Iowa State University to achieve the following objectives:
- Establishment of a robust scientific design;
- Post‐treatment monitoring of biodiversity response to land restoration;
- Dissemination of study results through reports, presentations, publications, and news releases.
Taxa to be monitored in support of these objectives include plants, insect pollinators, birds, amphibians, and reptiles.
