Bishop, Leslie, Schnapp, Rae, Stant, Jeff, Belth, Jeffrey E., Brodman, Robert, Carlson, Ross, Cole, Linda, Dunbar, Steve, Holland, Jeffrey D., Kerner, Ron, Russell, Steve, Jean, Robert P., Koehn, Leroy, Lendemer, James, Maloney, Tim, Milne, Marc A., Mynhardt, Glené, Rothrock, Paul, Rupp, David, and Sheets, Jeremy J.
The Indiana Forest Alliance (IFA) sponsored an extended biodiversity survey (i.e., Ecoblitz) between 2014 and 2018 within the Back-Country Area of Morgan Monroe and Yellowwood State Forest in Indiana. Teams of scientists, self-trained specialists, and volunteers reported 3077 species of mammals, birds, herpetofauna, fish, aquatic macroinvertebrates, spiders, bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, singing insects, beetles, flies, true bugs, fungi, lichens, non-vascular plants, and vascular plants to date: insect analysis is ongoing. Forty of these are included as federal or state-listed species with one federally-endangered species and nine state-endangered species. The extensive lists of species also resulted in numerous state and county records. The Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) of the plant community shows that this forest has very high remnant natural value. Besides species lists, valuable ecological data were collected concerning habitat distributions (i.e., lichens, plants, herpetofauna, and spiders), reproductive success (endangered species and forest birds), and forest use by native bees. The results of this study contribute to the knowledge needed for the conservation mission of stale forest land. Lists of species are available on the IFA web site (https://indianaforestalliance.org/ecoblitz/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]