A West Virginia University researcher will make the Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington, Pa., a more habitable place for wildlife, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the National Park Service.

Jim Anderson, an assistant professor of wildlife and fisheries resources in WVU ’s Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, will develop and implement a habitat management plan for woodcock at the historic site.

“The goal of this project is to evaluate and restore a wet meadow area dominated by an invasive exotic plant species called Tartartian honeysuckle,”Anderson said.

While the variety of honeysuckle isn’t necessarily a poor habitat for woodcock, it does crowd out native tree and shrub species that are better suited to the needs of the woodland bird, he noted.

“The National Park Service is dedicated to controlling exotic species if they interfere with natural processes or natural habitats, disrupt the accurate presentation of cultural landscapes, or hamper the management of their lands,”Anderson explained.

Two graduate students, Jennifer Edalgo of Sierra Vista, Ariz., and Jason Love of Athens, Ga., will assist Anderson in conducting wildlife and plant surveys, implementing and evaluating control mechanisms for the honeysuckle, and evaluating the impacts of removal on native species.

While other wildlife species will benefit from the restoration of the landscape, woodcock have been chosen to receive special attention in the study.

“The species has declined more than 45 percent in the past 50 years,”Anderson said.”The decline has been due largely to loss of appropriate habitats in the northeastern United States.”

After conducting wildlife and plant surveys, Anderson and his team will develop and test strategies to remove the honeysuckle. This will be followed by the development of a management plan for woodcock habitats in the battlefield area.

“I look at this project as a way to develop an idealized plan for dealing with the removal of invasive species,”Anderson said.