Restoration Potential: Restoration potential is good as long as habitat availability is favorable. Limitations on dispersal ability are unlikely to create problems for restoration or management as the species is adapted to exploiting patchy, short-lived habitats. High turnover of breeding birds and rapid resettlement of experimentally vacated territories testify to the species' ability to colonize new habitat (Thompson and Nolan 1973, Thompson 1977).
Preserve Selection and Design Considerations: In many areas (e.g., eastern and southern part of the range), periodic habitat management is necessary if a preserve is to provide suitable habitat over a long period of time. Large tracts are not likely to be managed solely for this species, but creation of shrubby openings of any shape of greater than five ha, even when surrounded by unfavorable habitat, are sufficient to support breeding populations.
Management Requirements: In the eastern part of the range, provision of early successional habitats is essential (Dennis 1958). Chats can be managed in the east by creating and maintaining shrubby openings of at least five ha in forest. In the eastern and southern portions of the range, abandoned agricultural fields left unmanaged for 10 years and the removal of trees and encouragement of a shrub layer in powerline rights-of-way will create suitable chat habitat. Wherever marginal cropland is abandoned, the species should benefit before canopy closure.
Clear-cuts are probably the best way to create new habitat. Clear-cutting and shelterwood cutting that creates openings of five ha or more will lead to the development of suitable habitat through natural succession in Missouri (Annand and Thompson, unpublished data) and elsewhere. Selective logging in the form of either single-tree selection or group selection does not create openings large enough to attract chats. It is important that shrubs are left after clear-cutting, so clear-cuts should not be burned or treated in any way that results in the total loss of shrubs. Doing so will delay the development of suitable habitat. While chats will tolerate considerable amounts of open grass (Johnston and Odum 1956), some dense shrubbery is essential. Grazing among bushy patches does not seem to deter chats. Similarly, management of powerline rights-of-way should not discourage the development of dense shrubs. Prairie maintenance and restoration efforts that encourage a shrubby transition to surrounding forest (in contrast to a sharp transition) provide suitable chat habitat. In the west, the chat is clearly dependent on shrubby riparian habitat, so maintenance and restoration of riparian areas are essential.
Management Research Needs: More information on the relationship between patch size and chat population size would be useful for designing management schemes.
Effective management requires assessment of the pattern of genetic diversity within the species in order to identify evolutionarily significant units.
More information on the effect of Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism on reproductive success would be useful, but this will be difficult and expensive to obtain. Focusing on identifying evolutionarily significant units and determining the optimal habitat in an area for this habitat specialist are probably the best and most cost-effective approaches.
Little is known about chat habitat requirements and habitat availability during the non-breeding season. The effects, if any, on breeding populations of changes on the wintering grounds are unknown.
Biological Research Needs: Population declines have been documented, especially in the northeastern part of the range, and in the broader coverage of the BBS (Sauer and Droege 1992, Askins 1993). It is difficult to interpret these survey data without knowledge of the availability of suitable habitats. Chats are habitat specialists so that changes in availability of suitable habitat will greatly affect chat populations in a geographic region. Documentation of the amount, size, and age of suitable habitat may be obtainable, especially from publicly owned lands that are being managed for multiple use.