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An urban wildlife habitat experiment: conservation implications of altering management regimes on animals and plants along urban and rural rights-of-way


 Biodiversity along rights-of-way (ROWs) can decline due to local-scale management, including frequent urban mowing and spraying, or with increasing amount of urban infrastructure surrounding those grassy spaces. Distinguishing effects of mowing regime from effects of surrounding urban land are necessary to determine what management strategies effectively conserve wildlife in different landscapes, and to justify changes in management that could increase populations of weeds. We used a manipulative Before/After-Control/Impact (BACI) experiment in 17 transmission line ROWs during 2007–2009, along an urbanization gradient, to disentangle effects of mowing frequency and the amount of urban land (buildings, hard surfaces like concrete, asphalt) surrounding ROWs. In the BACI study, we halted mowing and spraying for 1 year in five urban ROWs, introduced two rounds of mowing per year in three rural ROWs, and compared vegetation and arthropods found within these manipulated ROWs and within three urban and six rural control ROWs. European skipper butterflies Thymelicus lineola, lepidopteran biomass in herbaceous vegetation, milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) and Canada thistle Cirsium arvense increased when mowing and spraying were halted for one year. Conversely, monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus, legume cover and dandelion Taraxacum officinale increased when mowing was introduced to rural ROWs. To increase taller butterfly resource plants while still controlling weeds within urban ROWs, we recommend reducing management frequency within the interior of ROWs while maintaining frequent management along ROW borders that are adjacent to infrastructure.