Description of award and activities to be performed: the aces office of research and agricultural experiment station (AES) enables and encourages faculty creativity, innovation, and…

Description of award and activities to be performed: the aces office of research and agricultural experiment station (AES) enables and encourages faculty creativity, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration to advance the mission of the college in an environment that is inclusive, respectful of diversity, and open and equitable for all. The mcintire-stennis program will help support forestry research activities across aces and the AES. Activities to be performed include determining whether edna can be used to assess outcomes of forest creation or restoration in agricultural landscapes for wildlife conservation and evaluating how forest management activities impact the abundance and diversity of moths and the eastern whip-poor-will. Deliverables and expected outcomes: deliverables and expected outcomes include the generation of new DNA sequence data for under-studied vertebrate species of illinois to aid in the assessment of forest creation or restoration. In addition, forest management activities that result in higher-quality forests and habitats will be identified and promoted. Intended beneficiaries: target audiences for mcintire-stennis research will include policymakers and researchers concerned with the management of forested lands at the federal, state, county, municipal, or private level, landowners, wildlife and natural resource conservationists, academic ecologists, land managers, government agency personnel involved in planning, implementing, and regulating ecological restoration, afforestation and conservation programs, state and local resource managers, scientists studying conservation and wildlife biology, and the broader public. The university of illinois does not expect any subrecipient activities.