Deforestation of tropical forests has led to widespread loss and extirpation of forest bird species around the world, including the Hawaiian Islands which have experienced a dramatic loss of forests over the last 200-800 years. Given the important role birds play in forest ecosystem functions via seed dispersal and pollination, a bird community's response to forest restoration is an important measure of the success of such conservation actions. We evaluated the bird response to reforestation at an important bird sanctuary, Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawai ′ i Island, using 26 years of bird count data. We show that most species from within the diverse avian community increased significantly, but species colonized the restoration forest at different rates. Distance from intact forest and time since restoration were both important predictors of colonization rate, interacting such that for most species it took more time to colonize areas farther from the intact forest. In addition, both forest cover and understory diversity helped to explain bird densities, but the effect varied among species, suggesting that different habitat requirements may help drive variation in colonization rates. This article provides the first detailed evaluation of how a diverse community of birds has responded to one of the largest, ongoing reforestation projects in Hawai ′ i.Key words: forest birds, Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawai ′ i, koa, reforestation Implications for Practice• Colonization rates of a restoration forest by a diverse bird community were variable, indicating that the time to recovery of bird populations will vary by species; the three endangered species in the study site show some of the slowest colonization rates.• Distance from intact forest and time since reforestation were both strong predictors of bird colonization patterns, with highest densities occurring closest to intact forest for most species.• Forest canopy cover and understory plant richness were also related to patterns in bird densities, but the relationship varied among species, suggesting different species will have variable responses to the same restoration effort.

Feedbacks within ecosystems can lead to internal reinforcement of the current state providing ecosystem resilience. Often, multiple biotic interactions across trophic levels play a role in such feedbacks, yet these are generally studied independently, obscuring the relative importance of interactions among different factors. We look at various potential feedbacks in intact and degraded mesic forests on Hawaiʻi Island where managers have planted native Acacia koa (koa) trees in an attempt to jumpstart succession in former cattle pastures. These restoration forests, however, have not undergone secondary succession, instead maintaining a koa overstory with an exotic pasture grass understory. We contrasted different trophic level processes that influence the capacity for natural understory regeneration: feedbacks between bird-mediated seed rain and fruiting understory ("top-down"), as well as links between understory composition and microhabitats for native seed germination ("bottom-up"). We quantified bird-mediated seed rain under canopy trees along transects spanning intact, fragmented, and restoration forests. Along these transects, we established plots around focal overstory trees to measure abundance of fruiting understory species, ground cover (e.g., exotic grass, bryophyte), and obtained estimates of bird density to evaluate the contribution of each of these factors to seedling abundance. We also used a factorial seed addition/grass removal experiment to directly compare the influence of seed rain and germination substrate. We found evidence of both top-down and bottom-up feedbacks that reinforced the current state of each forest type. In the intact and fragmented forests, the combination of comparatively high seed rain and ample germination substrate is likely critical for maintaining a diverse forest system. In contrast, exotic grasses exhibit priority effects in restoration forests, inhibiting seed germination and effectively negating any benefits that could be derived from bird-mediated seed rain. Such internal reinforcement suggests that active, rather than passive, restoration would be beneficial to increase forest diversity in restoration areas.

A business plan serves two broad, primary functions. First, it provides specific information to those (e.g., prospective investors) not familiar with the proposed or existing business, including its goals and the management strategy and financial and other resources necessary to attain those goals. For outside individuals, it is imperative that the business plan offer a clear rationale for why the goals represent a good investment and why the strategy for achieving those goals is the best one possible. Second, a business plan provides internal guidance to those who are active in the operation of the business, allowing all individuals to understand where the business is headed and the means by which it will get there. The plan helps keep the business from drifting away from its goals and key actions through careful articulation of a strategy.In the context of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's conservation efforts, business plans represent the strategies necessary to meet the goals of Keystone and other initiatives. At its core, each business plan emphasizes the type(s) and magnitude of the impacts (benefits) that will be realized through the initiative, the monetary costs involved, and the potential obstacles (risks) to achieving those gains. Readers of the business plan must be able to see the strength of the relationship between the activities identified within the strategy and the anticipated outcomes. Investors also must be able to see their investment as being integral to achievement of those outcomes.ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARYAmerican Oystercatcher is a large, stately shorebird that inhabits coastal marshes, beaches, and islands along Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. Although American Oystercatchers can be found sporadically along coastlines elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere, the subspecies that inhabits the eastern U.S. is distinct in its taxonomy and geographic range. Biologists have become increasingly concerned about the long-term prospects for American Oystercatchers. Once a fairly common bird along the eastern seaboard, oystercatchers there now number only 11,000, irregularly distributed between Maine and Texas.Despite existing conservation efforts American Oystercatchers in eastern North America are projected to decrease by at least 12% during the next decade, though that may be overly optimistic. Through this business plan, a partnership has laid out an aggressive 10-year goal to increase the Atlantic and Gulf Coast population of American Oystercatchers by 30% --a 42% marginal increase over population levels if additional actions identified through this business plan are not implemented. If accomplished, scientists believe that the enhanced oystercatcher population will provide a robust foundation for long-term persistence of the species in the face of anticipated sea-level rise and coastal changes associated with global climate change and other anthropogenic influences. Efforts directed towards American Oystercatchers will also benefit more than a dozen other bird species of high conserva...

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As human populations and associated development increase, interactions between humans and wildlife are occurring with greater frequency. The effects of these interactions, particularly on species whose populations are declining, are of great interest to ecologists, conservationists, land managers and natural resource policy‐makers. The American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus, a species of conservation concern in the USA, nests on coastal beaches subject to various forms of anthropogenic disturbance, including aircraft overflights, off‐road vehicles and pedestrians. This study assessed the effects of these human disturbances on the incubation behaviour and reproductive success of nesting American Oystercatchers at Cape Lookout National Seashore, on the Atlantic coast of the USA. We expanded on‐going monitoring of Oystercatchers at Cape Lookout National Seashore by supplementing periodic visual observations with continuous 24‐h video and audio recording at nests. Aircraft overflights were not associated with changes in Oystercatcher incubation behaviour, and we found no evidence that aircraft overflights influenced Oystercatcher reproductive success. However, Oystercatchers were on their nests significantly less often during off‐road vehicle and pedestrian events than they were during control periods before the events, and an increase in the number of off‐road vehicles passing a nest during incubation was consistently associated with significant reductions in daily nest survival (6% decrease in daily nest survival for a one‐vehicle increase in the average number of vehicles passing a nest each day; odds ratio = 0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.90, 0.98) and hatching success (12% decrease in hatching success for a one‐vehicle increase in the average number of vehicles passing a nest each day; odds ratio = 0.88; 95% CI 0.76, 0.97). Management of vehicles and pedestrians in areas of Oystercatcher breeding is important for the conservation of American Oystercatchers.