Small Mammal Abundance and Diversity on Conservation REserve Lands, North-Central Montana

Abstract

We evaluated four types of agricultural lands- crop/fallow, rangeland, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) with a heavy cover, and CRP with a light cover-in north-central Montana for small mammal abundance and diversity. Abundance and diversity were measured by trapping small mammals in each land class during fall, 1995, using live, snap, and pitfall traps. Trapping was conducted using an unbalanced, factorial design resulting in 2464 trapnights yielding 304 individuals representing three genera. We experienced a lower catch rate (E, < 0.1) on rangeland than either type of CRP or cropland. Diversity was least in cropland, greatest in heavy CRP, and intermediate in light CRP and rangeland. As an agricultural land practice, CRP is important to small mammals and could be used as a tool to improve small mammal diversity and abundance on agricultural lands.