Division of Bird Habitat Conservation

Birdscapes: News from International Habitat Conservation Partnerships

Project Profiles - United States

Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Rejuvenates Bald Eagle Habitat
by Robert Mesta, Sonoran Joint Venture

The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation live on a small reservation, 4 miles wide and 10 miles long, located at the confluence of the Verde and Salt Rivers in central Arizona. The Verde River runs through the center of the reservation for its entire length, creating a lush riparian corridor dominated by cottonwood galleries and associated mesquite bosques, a combination that supports one of the most diverse wildlife communities in the Southwest. This year, the old, 50-foot cottonwoods supported four active bald eagle nests—the densest concentration of nesting bald eagles in Arizona. This spring, six young fledged.

The Fort McDowell Yavapai have a special relationship with the bald eagle, known as Sahh (pronounced Sh-ahh). It is revered in their culture. To ensure that these birds will always grace the skies over their reservation, they participate in a program geared toward the study and protection of nesting bald eagles. There is a sense of urgency among the Fort McDowell Yavapai, because the habitat the eagles use is growing senescent, without younger trees to replace them. Upstream dam releases no longer allow the spring-flood flows necessary to initiate the germination of seedling cottonwoods.

In late 2000, the Fort McDowell Yavapai requested the assistance of the Sonoran Joint Venture in initiating a long-term, collaborative, community project to plant trees along the Verde River corridor. They believed the project was needed to ensure the availability of eagle nesting habitat in the future.

The Sonoran Joint Venture brought together the Fort McDowell Yavapai Environmental Department, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Flood Control District of Maricopa County to assist as cooperators. Several surveys were conducted to identify candidate sites for tree planting, and a pole-planting-technique workshop was held for all participants.

Using this technique, trees are thinned from a healthy stand and cut into large poles averaging 8 inches in diameter and 12 feet in length. The poles are planted deep enough to make contact with the water table. This technique was used for two reasons: the poles do not have to be watered, and they are large enough that they are not grazed by cattle. The Flood Control District allowed the cutting of poles from one of its properties on the Lower Gila River, where a healthy stand of cottonwoods and willows is maintained.

On February 23, the Fort McDowell Yavapai community joined the project cooperators and planted more than 50 cottonwood and willow poles. Community participants included the Tribal Farm, Public Works, Police, Fire, and Environmental Departments, Tribal Council members, Fort McDowell Sand and Gravel, and Fort McDowell Nursery. Three months later the poles sprouted leaves, and they continue to thrive.

Based on the success of this effort, and interest expressed by other Indian reservations to conduct riparian restoration and enhancement projects, the Sonoran Joint Venture, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation will sponsor a tree-planting workshop this fall for all Arizona reservations. The partners' goal is to have community-supported, riparian-tree plantings on reservations throughout Arizona in the winter of 2002.

For more information, contact Robert Mesta, Joint Venture Coordinator, Sonoran Joint Venture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 12661 E. Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85748, (520) 722-4289, robert_mesta@fws.gov.

Treasure Trove Discovered at Red Slough
by David Arbour, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
and Robert Bastarache, U.S. Forest Service

Ponce de León scoured Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth, and Fray Marcos de Niza wandered through southern New Mexico in hopes of finding the Seven Cities of Gold. Neither was successful. Their treasure seeking was based on third- and fourth-hand accounts and myth. Today's treasure hunters have an advantage, particularly if they are after golden eagles or goldeneyes in wetlands and are trekking in southeastern Oklahoma. These adventurers can have a first-hand experience of finding a remarkable treasure only recently discovered near the Red River. An avian trove was uncovered in the Red Slough Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) in Ouachita National Forest.

Within the 7,800-acre WRP, a bonanza of both common and rare birds has been discovered: 250 species and counting. Located in the heart of the WRP is the real gem—the 3,855-acre Red Slough Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Abundant water and close proximity to the Red River combine to provide a paradise for birds and a great experience for birders and waterfowlers.

Managed as a rice farm for many years, the land that would become the WMA came into public ownership in 1997 through a donation to the U.S. Forest Service by The Conservation Fund. A joint land-management team comprised of experts from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and Ducks Unlimited, Inc., oversaw the restoration activities.

The team's goal was to provide a variety of habitat types across the site: mudflats, emergent marshes, shallow-water impoundments, deep-water reservoirs, riparian zones, bottomland hardwoods, and scrub/shrub. Management practices such as disking, prescribed burning, tree planting, and water-level manipulation have made possible the extraordinary diversity of bird life at the slough.

Recreational opportunities have exploded in response to these management practices. Many birds found at the slough either do not occur elsewhere in Oklahoma or are rare to the State. Tropical species such as purple gallinule, white ibis, white-faced ibis, neotropic cormorant, black-bellied whistling duck, and wood stork are common summer residents and/or breeders. State rarities such as glossy ibis, swallow-tailed kite, common ground-dove, cinnamon teal, American avocet, golden eagle, black-necked stilt, and prairie falcon have been spotted. Interspersed among the unusual species are large numbers of more common wading birds such as herons and egrets, all taking advantage of the abundant crawfish population.

In winter, tens of thousands of ducks converge at Red Slough to forage on the flooded vegetation and aquatic invertebrates, and tundra swans and American tree sparrows have been found wintering there.
Spring and fall migrations find good numbers of shorebirds and passerines, and State rarities such as the peregrine falcon and merlin are regular visitors. Management of the moist-soil units provides essential habitat for 31 species of shorebirds. Piping plovers, Sprague's pipits, and Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrows make occasional appearances.

Birders and duck hunters from across the country are making the Red Slough WMA one of the hottest recreational destinations in the United States. They have a public-private, habitat-conservation partnership to thank for creating this State treasure.

For more information, contact Robert Bastarache, Ouachita National Forest, 201 North Central, Room 116, Idabel, Oklahoma 74745, (580) 286-6564, rbastarache@fs.fed.us, www.fs.fed.us/oonf/ouachita.htm or James Green, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 201 North Central, Room 128, Idabel, Oklahoma 74745, (580) 286-5342 extension 101, james.green@ok.usda.gov.

Progress Defined at Black Rush Lake
by Steven W. Kallin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

For those who would bother to notice, a patch of stunted bulrush struggled to survive in a roadside ditch. The ditch laid in what was historically the bottom of Black Rush Lake, a 350-acre, shallow, prairie lake about 8 miles southwest of Marshall in Lyon County, Minnesota. Even after more than 100 years of losing the area's wetlands and prairie to cropland, Mother Nature would not be denied.

The practice of converting the vast prairie pothole landscape into rich agricultural land began with the arrival of European settlers into the area. Today, more than 90 percent of the original wetlands and 99 percent of the native prairie have been replaced by row crops. Black Rush Lake, once a hunting and gathering site for Native Americans, was converted to agricultural use, first as a flood-prone pasture, then later to high-risk cropland. The cool lake-bottom soils were the last to warm up in the spring and the first to feel an early frost, and crops were often lost to flooding.

An expensive upgrade to the drainage system was considered in the mid 1990s to reduce crop loss; however, landowners decided to seek a different solution. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) had an answer. Using funds from the sale of Federal Duck Stamps, the Service acquired 990 acres including and surrounding historic Black Rush Lake to create a waterfowl production area (WPA). A partnership comprised of 14 organizations formed to restore the WPA's habitat.

The partners received a $50,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, to which they added $290,000 to complete the restoration work. Installation of a water-control structure allowed manipulation of water levels to restore aquatic vegetation. The lake is kept at 2 to 3 feet in depth with an approximate 50:50 mix of open water and emergent vegetation—ideal habitat for waterfowl broods.

Partners planted approximately 350 acres of former cropland surrounding the lake with a mix of native grass and flower seeds, which were harvested from a rare remnant of native prairie in southwest Minnesota. The balance of the project's uplands had previously been seeded with a mix of non-native grasses and will eventually be converted to native prairie plants.

The Black Rush Lake WPA has been good for wildlife and provides multiple benefits for the public. The wetlands' temporary flood storage capacity will benefit the downstream, flood-prone City of Marshall. Brawner Lake, a downstream recreational area, will have improved water quality, and Southwest State University currently uses the WPA for environmental education projects. New habitat for waterfowl and other migratory and resident wildlife also provides recreational opportunities, such as wildlife photography, bird watching, and hunting.

A hundred years ago, it was considered "progress" when the landscape was converted to cropland. For the Black Rush Lake partnership, progress has a different meaning: Restoration of high-risk cropland to its pre-settlement condition. It's a definition that works for both wildlife and people.

For more information, contact Steven W. Kallin, Wetland Manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Black Rush Lake Waterfowl Production Area, Route 1, Box 273 A, Windom, Minnesota 56101, (800) 577-2875 extension 11, steve_kallin@fws.gov.

Black Rush Lake Restoration Project Partners

Minnesota River Basin Projects, Inc.
Balaton Sportsmen's Club
Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources
Cottonwood Sportsmen's Club
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Lyon County Commissioners
Lyon County Highway Department
Lyon County Soil and Water Conservation Department
Minnesota Division of Trails and Waterways
Minnesota Division of Wildlife
Pheasants Forever, Inc., Marshall Chapter
Redwood River Sportsmen's Club
Southwest Sportsmen's Club
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Water and Grass in Big Sky Country
by Rick Northrup and Jim Hansen, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks

The Milk River Basin Project area in north-central Montana encompasses 11 million acres, which contain some of the largest remaining tracts of native prairie found in the entire Prairie Pothole Region—more than 60 percent of the project area is in native grasslands. The basin's grasslands and wetlands provide critical habitat for a myriad of waterfowl, waterbird, and grassland bird species. The large blocks of unfragmented grassland make it difficult for predators to find nests, resulting in high nest success. The project's emphasis has been on conserving and enhancing that productivity on some of the best remaining habitats. This is effectively accomplished by maintaining the area's traditional land use—cattle ranching, a use compatible with habitat conservation.

Natural and man-made wetlands, supporting many species of migratory birds, amphibians, and reptiles, are scattered across the project area. Mallards and northern pintails comprise almost 40 percent of the breeding duck population. Eleven species of shorebirds breed in the project area, and another 20 use the wetlands as refueling stops during migration. The grasslands support several species of birds with declining populations, including Baird's sparrow, lark bunting, Sprague's pipit, chestnut-collared longspur, and McCown's longspur.

Although some of the project's work has occurred on public land, its major focus has been on private lands, where conversion of native prairie to small-grain farming continues, but not as rapidly as in other parts of the country. Sodbusting has severe ecological consequences: The practice fragments grassland habitat, and agricultural run-off degrades wetlands. By working cooperatively with ranchers, partners have developed habitat projects that avoid these negative effects and that are beneficial both to landowners and wildlife.

Partners concentrated on three goals: protection of key wetland/grassland complexes, restoration and establishment of wetlands, and restoration of grasslands. They accomplished their objectives by providing perpetual protection to 1,668 acres of grasslands and 1,270 acres of natural wetlands. Restoring drained wetlands and establishing new shallow wetlands resulted in a gain of 2,905 acres of highly productive wetland habitat and provided water for ranching operations. These efforts demonstrated that conservation and ranching are not mutually exclusive. The successes are expected to stimulate further landowner participation in partnerships "down the road."

Partners met their third objective, grassland restoration, by helping to pay for improved seed mixes used on 28,023 acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands. These mixes will help to ensure that the tracts will be used as grazing land when the CRP contracts expire.

The Milk River Basin Project has protected and expanded wetland and grassland habitats in Montana's Big Sky Country. Partners have helped to maintain traditional economic uses of the land and, at the same time, enhance wildlife habitat. But this is only the beginning. Partners intend to take advantage of the many opportunities that remain. Stay tuned.

For more information, contact Rick Northrup, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, P. O. Box 1122, Malta, Montana 59538, (406) 654-1341, north@ttc-cmc.net.

Partners received a $297,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant to which they added $2,616,000.

Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks
Zortman Mining, Inc.
Pheasants Forever, Inc.
Private Landowners
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

225 Years Later, Another Good Deed
by Brian Reid, The Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts

The North River, winding through the glacially constructed hills south of Boston, Massachusetts, is long recognized for its outstanding natural and scenic values. It is designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service and a Wild and Scenic River under the act of the same name. One of the reasons for its attaining such status is its association with the largest and most intact tidal-freshwater wetlands in Massachusetts and with the only known occurrence of tidal forest in New England. Large stands of wild rice and several rare species are found in these globally restricted habitats, and the marshes support high quality habitat for waterfowl, the State's largest marsh wren aggregation, and anadromous fisheries.

These habitats are situated within a large base of existing conservation or public lands, but there are still a number of privately owned parcels supporting these rare habitats interwoven in the landscape. A particular parcel of strategic importance, as far as conservation is concerned, is known as "Lower Neck." This moniker was taken from a description of the property found in a 1776 deed signed 2 weeks prior to the Declaration of Independence.

The parcel, which consists of an upland peninsula projecting into the very heart of a 1,000-acre wetland complex, sits at the junction of three North River tributaries and connects more than 800 acres of public and private conservation land. One hundred years ago, the property was owned by Gilbert H. West Box Company. Not surprisingly, this enterprise harvested the parcel's woodlands to make pine and cedar containers, a practice that stopped about 60 years ago. The parcel's title transferred to an owner with a less voracious appetite for wood—firewood only. To guarantee that the wetland complex remains intact, partners of the North River Tidal Freshwater Marsh Project made a decision to buy the property.

A North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant of $50,000 helped to fund the acquisition along with $97,000 from project partners. The partners were joined in the conservation effort by the nearby towns of Hanover and Pembroke, which redesignated more than 250 acres of general municipal land for permanent conservation. The Wildlands Trust also received two parcels totaling 16 acres through donations by individuals.

In all, 334 acres of rare habitat have been secured for a variety of birds, such as American black duck, northern pintail, wood thrush, red-shouldered hawk, and black-billed cuckoo. The project area includes populations of the globally rare plant Longs' bittercress, the State-listed beggar tick and hemlock parsley, and two State species of special concern, the eastern box turtle and spotted turtle.

The completion of the North River project triggered the initiation of two new habitat conservation projects, which are expected to be completed in 2001, and, of course, habitat monitoring and evaluation will continue in the project area.

The real satisfaction comes from knowing that more than 225 years after the first deed was signed for the Lower Neck property, the land has a good chance of returning to the condition in which the first owner saw it.

For more information, contact Mark Primack, Executive Director, The Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts, 165 West Street, P.O. Box 2282, Duxbury, Massachusetts 02331, (781) 934-9018, wildtrust@aol.com.

The Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts
Sheehan Family Foundation
Milton Fine Family Charitable Foundation
Sweet Water Trust
Davis Conservation Foundation
60 Individuals
Town of Hanover
Town of Pembroke

Things Come Full Circle at Triangle Marsh
by Barbara Salzman, Marin Audubon Society

The purchase of Triangle Marsh in Corte Madera, Marin County, California, fulfilled a long-held goal of the Marin Audubon Society (Society). Thirty years ago the Society obtained grant funds and, together with the Town of Corte Madera, tried to purchase the marsh but was outbid by a developer. In the intervening years, the developer tried numerous times to get approvals to develop the property as a residential subdivision. The town, instead, designated the site as open space. The developer sued, and the town reinstated the residential zoning. Ironically, in the end, the developer acknowledged that the best use for the property was as habitat and sold the marsh to the Society.

This acquisition has assured the permanent protection of the site's 20-acre tidal marsh with its three unique characteristics. It is one of only a handful of tidal marshes around San Francisco Bay that has never been diked; it is habitat for the endangered clapper rail; and it has a tidal pond, a feature once common in the bay's tidal marshes but now rare due to diking and filling. The purchase also will protect approximately 7 acres of intertidal mudflat and 6 acres of filled land. At low tide, the exposed mudflats provide foraging habitat for migrating and overwintering shorebirds. At high tide during the winter, rafts of many thousands of diving ducks, primarily scaup and canvasback, can be seen.

Thanks to a $50,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant and partners' contributions of $732,500, the purchase loan has been paid in full, allowing the project to move into its restoration phase. Partners have secured funds to remove earth from the 6 acres of filled land, which would allow the former tidal marsh to restore itself. Applications to several foundations to acquire funds for planning are awaiting approval.

When the marsh has been restored, the property will be donated to the California Department of Fish and Game, in whose care it will be managed as part of the adjacent Corte Madera Ecological Reserve, a 200-acre habitat area for the clapper rail. The project also helps to advance the habitat goals of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan's San Francisco Bay Joint Venture.

This project is the first in what is hoped to be a series of actions taken as part of the Marin Baylands Campaign to permanently protect the bay's threatened habitats.

For more information, contact Barbara Salzman, Marin Audubon Society, 48 Ardmore Road, Larkspur, California 94939, (415) 924-6057, bsalzman@worldnet.att.net.

Marin Audubon Society
State Coastal Conservancy
State Lands Commission
San Francisco BayKeeper
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, San Francisco Coastal Ecosystem Program
J. M. Long Foundation
Marin Community Foundation, Marin Baylands Fund

What's That in the Platte?
by Brent Lathrop, The Nature Conservancy

For any naturalist who has ever been there, south-central Nebraska's Platte River is an acknowledged crown jewel on the Great Plains landscape. Every spring, an estimated 500,000 sandhill cranes—80 percent of the world population—stage for a month along the river, accompanied by millions of geese and ducks. Amid this amassing in the Central Flyway, a few whooping cranes from the only remaining wild migratory flock always make an appearance.

In the early part of the 20th century, seasonal flow patterns on the Platte were dramatically altered by the upstream construction of dams and irrigation canals, leading to narrowing of the river channels and encroachment of woody vegetation on islands and sandbars and in the flood plain. All the while, prairie and wet meadows along the river were steadily converted to row-crop agriculture.

By the early 1990s, The Nature Conservancy (Conservancy) and its partners had acquired a significant portion of the last undisturbed remnants of native habitat along the river. Since then, the focus has been on restoring submerged sandbars in the river, which is where the cranes roost at night, and returning marginally productive cropland back to prairies and wetlands. These sorts of restorations are essential to providing adequate landscape-scale habitat for migratory waterbirds, nesting grassland songbirds, and other Great Plains fauna.

In 1997, the Conservancy acquired the 600-acre upstream portion of Drover Island and, in partnership with Prairie Plains Resource Institute, began restoration. The site encompassed almost 400 acres of eastern red cedar along the island perimeter, the result of 50 years of reduced and altered flows in the river. Most of the interior 200 acres (historically, a mosaic of sloughs, wetlands, wet meadows, and prairie) had been converted to row crop. The Drover Island project is the fourth wetland/prairie restoration the Conservancy has undertaken on the river; it is the largest and most complex restoration ever attempted on the Platte.

By January 2001, the major components of the restoration had been completed. The eastern red cedar woodland has been cleared. Selected deciduous and cedar trees (about 1 percent of the previous stand) have been left standing. Portions of the cleared area have been over-seeded with native prairie grasses and forbs to augment remnant vegetation and the seed bank in the soil. In the row-crop areas, the historic sloughs were re-contoured by bulldozer operator Shawn Harders, who specializes in wetlands restoration. Volunteers then seeded these areas by hand-casting a mix of locally adapted wetland species. In the prairie areas, they hand-casted a high-diversity seed mix of grasses and forbs adapted to drier uplands. Ongoing management (for example, use of prescribed burning and rotational grazing of livestock) will maintain the landscape.

Drover Island is situated along a hike-and-bike trail and bridge that gets heavy recreational use, especially during the spring crane migration. Interpretive information and periodic field trips will provide explanation of the importance of wetland/prairie restorations. The millions of birds using these habitats will provide the proof.

For more information, contact Brent Lathrop, Platte/Rainwater Basin Project Director, The Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 438, Aurora, Nebraska 68818, (402) 694-4191, blathrop@tnc.org.

73 New Wetlands Created in Southwestern North Dakota
by Kevin Willis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Thanks to a $108,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant and more than $414,000 in partner contributions, 73 new wetlands now dot the rangeland landscape of southwestern North Dakota.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), working with Ducks Unlimited, Inc., North Dakota Game and Fish Department, North Dakota Wetlands Trust, and North Dakota ranchers, recently completed the North Dakota Great Plains Project, which established more than 759 surface-acres of shallow-water ponds. The project is part of a Service program that will create over 10,000 acres of wetlands across the region.

Wetlands created by the project range in size from a 1.7-acre pond in Hettinger County to a 215-acre lake on Pretty Rock National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County. The average size is 8.3 acres. In most cases, wetland creations and restorations are located within broad expanses of native rangeland or tame pasture and are associated with existing or newly created wetland areas, providing optimum prairie-wetland habitat for a variety of wildlife. Thirty-year agreements secured with 40 private landowners assure the long-term protection of these wetlands.

Because of the substantial seed bank occurring at individual project sites, newly created or restored wetlands have quickly developed healthy populations of cattail, smartweed, bulrush, and other wetland vegetation. The project primarily benefits ducks, including mallards, American wigeons, northern pintails, and blue-winged teal, but giant Canada geese have established nests on several project sites, and numerous species of marsh birds and shorebirds have been observed during spring and fall migration.

Although the principal purpose for creating the wetlands is to provide habitat for wildlife, the project serves many other equally important needs. Ranchers, who comprise the majority of landowners on whose property the new wetlands are located, now have good sources of water for their livestock, allowing better dispersal of the cattle across existing rangeland. For communities at large, by capturing and holding water following snowmelt and heavy summer thunderstorms, the new wetlands help to regulate downstream flood events, control erosion, and improve downstream water quality. The project boosted local economies as well, because local construction companies or ranchers were contracted to do much of the restoration work.

The North Dakota Great Plains Project demonstrates how wildlife and agricultural interests can successfully work together to accomplish a common goal. The North American Wetlands Conservation Act provided the needed catalyst for getting the project on-the-ground.

For more information, contact Kevin Willis, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3425 Miriam Avenue, Bismarck, North Dakota 58501, (701) 250-4403, kevin_willis@fws.gov.