Small mammal captures at the Picayune Strand State Forest, October 2014 - April 2016

We used Sherman live traps to capture and mark rodents in the Picayune Strand State Forest between October 2014 and April 2016 (IACUC permit USGS/SESC 2014-12). We selected areas to trap small mammals within the major vegetative types within Picayune Strand State Forest: cypress, pine, hardwood hammock, and wet prairie. We trapped in paired “restored” and “unrestored” areas of each habitat type. Drainage canals in PSSF have been recorded to reduce the water table up from 1.6 – 4.8 km away (Chuirazzi and Duever 2008). Areas considered “restored” were within 1.4 km of Prairie Canal , which was plugged in 2007. Areas considered “unrestored” were at least 8.5 km from the easterly Prairie Canal, in areas that are heavily drained by existing canals. Plugging Merritt canal which runs parallel to and is to the west of Prairie canal, was completed in 2015, between sampling years; however, Merritt is 5.4 km from the nearest unrestored trapping grid so hydrologic restoration to the region surrounding Merritt would not impact the unrestored trapping grids. Water levels (stage) are consistently higher in the restored areas.