Division of Bird Habitat Conservation

Birdscapes: News from International Habitat Conservation Partnerships

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In the Company of Birds and Forests
by Andrew de Vries, Forest Products Association of Canada

Editor: The Forest Products Association of Canada is the national and international voice for Canada’s wood, pulp, and paper producers. It provides a forum for advancing ideas and issues of key importance to the Canadian forest products industry and the 1,200 communities it helps sustain across Canada.

Why does a forest company get involved with birds? The reasons vary, but it is mainly because birds are excellent indicators of how forestry practices may affect the surrounding ecosystem. “Birds use many different types of habitat, from recently logged areas to old forests,” said John Deal, ecosystem management forester with Canadian Forest Products Ltd., on Vancouver Island. “Monitoring where birds occur lets us know how bird communities change from timber harvest to forest regrowth. Using this knowledge we can adjust our practices to best benefit birds.” John should know. He is both a professional forester and biologist, and was recently awarded Wildlife Habitat Canada’s Forestry Stewardship Award for nearly a decade of work towards the conservation of marbled murrelets and northern goshawk.

LP Canada is conducting similar avian work in the boreal forest. Over 63,000 bird sightings and calls have been recorded since 1997 as part of its Duck Mountain Forest Bird Monitoring Project. This project is designed to provide baseline information on forest bird populations, including rare species and their associated habitats. One surprising finding is the presence of the golden-winged warbler. This species is found mainly in the southern Great Lakes region with its range also extending just into southeastern Manitoba. The LP Canada bird studies have found that this species relies heavily upon shrublands and aspen stands regenerating after timber harvests.

Ducks Unlimited Canada’s (DUC) Western Boreal Program is one of many partnerships related to birds. Five companies, Alberta-Pacific, Tembec, Weyerhaeuser, LP Canada, and Slocan Forest Products, are contributing to mapping activities, waterfowl surveys, and water quality monitoring related to this waterfowl project. This ambitious initiative will map wetlands across a 4.6 million-square-kilometer area and assist in the development of best practices for watershed-based planning and forestry operations. A recent agreement between the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) and DUC will further contribute to work already underway in Canada’s boreal forest.

Another encouraging example of bird-oriented partnerships is the Canadian Intermountain Joint Venture. With over 50 partners, including Lignum, the joint venture was formed to prioritize bird conservation in British Columbia’s interior. Bill Bourgeois, Lignum’s vice-president of Environment and Government Affairs explained his interest in the partnership. “Birds in this area of British Columbia face many challenges including urbanization, agriculture, and forestry. Our diverse partnership can focus resources on birds needing the most attention rather than a piecemeal approach.”

At its Ottawa office, FPAC is actively involved with the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). “NABCI gives us an opportunity to work closely with provincial and federal government departments, and several large nongovernmental organizations involved in bird conservation. This way, FPAC can pass on important bird-related knowledge to and from the companies on-the-ground very quickly,” said Senior Vice-President of Sustainability Jean-Pierre Martel, “We estimate that 80 percent of forest company operations have been involved in bird related inventory or research in the last 5 years. There is a clear interest in partnering on this type of conservation work, and we want to be in a position to further that work wherever we can.”

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) also is working diligently to protect Canada’s forest birds through its continentwide Breeding Bird Survey and regional surveys such as the Ontario Forest Bird Monitoring Program. As a leader in NABCI, CWS shares information with FPAC and other organizations on the status of forest bird populations and the means needed to protect them.

As bird conservation initiatives in Canada’s forest continue to gain momentum, partnerships with the forestry industry are integral to the survival of bird species and Canada’s biodiversity. Working collaboratively to make the most of information and expertise from industry and government will ensure the most effective management of bird habitat. Wildlife conservationists will be encouraged to know that our forest birds are keeping good company.

For more information, contact Andrew de Vries, Director of Conservation Biology, Forest Products Association of Canada, 99 Bank Street, Suite 410, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6B9, (613) 563-1441 extension 318, adevries@fpac.ca.

Canada is home to one-tenth of global forest cover, including one-third of the world’s boreal forest. The boreal forest occupies 35 percent of the total Canadian land area, 75 percent of Canada’s total forestland, and represents 85 percent of the unaccessed forest in Canada. The boreal forms a continuous belt from Newfoundland and Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains and the northwest Yukon. Estimates of the number of landbirds breeding in Canada’s boreal region range from 1 to 3 billion. These numbers represent about 60 percent of all landbirds breeding in Canada.

The Navy Lakehurst Bluebirds
by John Joyce, Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst

Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, more abruptly known as Navy Lakehurst, serves as a research facility for carrier aircraft launch and recovery equipment. It also serves as a research facility for the production of smaller flyers: eastern bluebirds.

The installation occupies 7,430 acres within the million-acre Pinelands National Reserve in southern and central New Jersey. Our 4,100 acres of forest and 1,700 acres of grasslands surround two separate airfield complexes in a landscape that provides excellent habitat for bluebirds. Many of Navy Lakehurst’s old fields from the airship era are now scattered with trees and shrubs, adding to already abundant edge habitats.

As Navy Lakehurst’s Natural/Cultural Resources Manager, it is my duty to protect and enhance the installation’s natural resources. So, in 1990, when a colleague, Bill Hanley, told me about the bluebird nest box program at nearby Collier’s Mills Wildlife Management Area, we went to see it. Tom Mulvey, the program manager, showed us around. Convinced that there was room for another “tenant activity” at our facility, I took note of what Tom had accomplished, did further research, and then initiated the Navy Lakehurst eastern bluebird nest box program in 1991. We started with 21 boxes; today, we have 93.

We typically install the boxes on a pole with its entrance hole facing the nearest cover rather than a particular direction, as some suggest. We want fledglings, which may spend their first hours on the ground, to have the shortest route to a safe harbor. We use standard square-bottom boxes and Peterson-style boxes, which have narrow bottoms designed to lessen the female’s nest-building burden and conserve her energy for rearing hatchlings. To access boxes for cleaning, we’ve tried front, side, and top openings, as well as fold-out bottoms. Top openings are the least efficient.

While the program was intended to benefit bluebirds, other species compete for the same space. Pugnacious tree swallows are the second most frequent user of our boxes, often driving off bluebirds. However, we’ve observed several incidents of unusually aggressive bluebirds evicting established nesting tree swallows. House wrens occasionally make use of a box, particularly when it’s placed close to the forest edge. Early in the nesting season, black-capped chickadees also will compete for the nesting space.

A team of trained employee volunteers conducts weekly checks during the breeding season, tallying all nesting attempts. They track nest success by species and the number of eggs, hatchlings, and fledglings. They also note predation. Predators include pine and rat snakes, raccoons, and opossums, and bees and mice have displaced adult bluebirds on numerous occasions. The volunteers clean the boxes after each nesting.

As the program grew so did the intensity and sophistication of our predator control efforts. At first, we used only hole guards that doubled the entrance’s depth to deter avian predators. We installed umbrella-type pole guards on most boxes through the mid 1990s to exclude pole-climbing mammals. Because mice and snakes could still get through the small opening above the pole-guard mounting bracket, we developed a custom-cut cap that fits over the pole and slides down to cover the opening.

Over the past 13 years, a total of 2,804 bluebirds have fledged from Navy Lakehurst boxes. From 1998 to 2001, consecutive fledgling records were set with 251, 278, 323, and 395, with the number of boxes increasing only by five. The bluebird occupancy rate (at least one yearly nesting in a box) has averaged 69 percent—the state’s 10-year average from 1991 to 2001 was only 23 percent. In 2002, the bluebird occupancy rate for our 93 boxes was an astounding 83 percent. Our data also show that 897 tree swallows and 299 house wrens fledged.

As bluebird habitat continues to disappear in the East, we at Navy Lakehurst are pleased to know that we are doing our part to help sustain the population of this adaptable little bird.

For more information, contact John Joyce, Natural/Cultural Resources Manager, Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, Code 872, Route 547, Lakehurst, New Jersey 08733, (732) 323-2911, john.joyce@navy.mil.

Whipping the Nation into Shape
by John Pitre, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Farm Bill) authorized several conservation programs that place emphasis on emerging natural resource challenges faced by farmers, ranchers, and other landowners. Helping to meet these challenges are the Conservation Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Grassland Reserve Program, Wetland Reserve Program, and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), among others.

Generally, these agricultural programs have multiple environmental objectives: preventing soil erosion, improving water quality, and benefitting wildlife, for example. The WHIP, however, has a single objective—improving wildlife habitat on private lands. Two important factors that distinguish WHIP from other Farm Bill programs are that land eligibility is not limited to agricultural settings and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) can tailor the program to meet wildlife needs on a state-by-state basis. These aspects enhance the program’s effectiveness in benefitting wildlife.

Participation in WHIP is voluntary. An agreement is signed by an applicant and the NRCS to develop and/or improve wildlife habitat on the applicant’s property. The terms of these agreements generally range from 5 to 10 years, but may be longer. The NRCS provides technical support for a project and up to 75 percent in federal cost-share assistance. Participants are allowed to obtain other funding from state government agencies and private conservation organizations to cover the remaining costs.

A variety of habitats are being restored across the Nation under WHIP, including salmon and trout streams in the Northeast and Northwest, grasslands and wetlands in the Midwest, and riparian forests in the Southwest and Southeast. In Louisiana, the NRCS’ state plan gives priority to upland habitat, followed by prairie sites, alluvial areas, and coastal marshes. A wide array of restoration practices can be used within each of these habitat types. For example, a participant may reestablish native plants, manipulate successional growth, and restore wetlands.

In Louisiana, a typical habitat improvement practice used by landowners had been the planting of annual food plots for deer. The WHIP has expanded their thinking. The most popular restoration practices used in the State in 2003 included dike and water-control-structure installation, prescribed burning, forest-site preparation, and tree and shrub establishment. The WHIP’s practices provide long-term benefits for migratory and multiple indigenous species. Indigo buntings, marbled salamanders, black-necked stilts, prothonotary warblers, green-winged teal, and northern bobwhites are just as likely to benefit from WHIP practices as white-tailed deer. Last year, the NRCS obligated a total of $405,849 for WHIP conservation projects in Louisiana alone.

To learn how you can participate in WHIP, or any other Farm Bill program, contact the NRCS office or USDA Service Center nearest you.

For more information, contact John Pitre, Wildlife Biologist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, 3737 Government Street, Alexandria, Louisiana 71302, (318) 473-7809, john.pitre@la.usda.gov.

Quebec Leads Canada’s NABCI Implementation
by Isabelle Lessard and Luc Bélanger, Canadian Wildlife Service

There is no question that birds represent one of the most visible and best documented components of North American biodiversity. Due in part to their visibility, their habitats’ size, and their ecological role, birds are important indicators of the health of our continent’s ecosystem. However, despite growing awareness of their importance and the conservation efforts deployed to date, many species continue to decline. In Quebec, avian wildlife is represented by more than 300 species, of which 22 are considered at risk, and several dozen more are experiencing dramatic declines.

The spectacular cross-continental migration of birds, combined with the severity of the anthropogenic environmental changes occurring across the continent, led to the need for greater international cooperation for bird conservation. The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) was subsequently signed by numerous organizations and agencies from Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with the goal to “ensure that populations and habitats of North America’s birds are protected, restored, and enhanced through coordinated efforts at international, national, regional, and local levels guided by sound science and effective management.”
The Canadian Wildlife Service, Quebec region (Quebec) supports NABCI implementation and is the first Canadian province to develop a 5-year action plan for its provincial implementation. The following five strategic orientations define the rationale of this plan.

Obtain a Solid Biological Basis: The North American Bird Conservation Initiative offers a template for pooling and integrating knowledge from various partners and stakeholders in biodiversity and sustainable development conservation. Quebec is committed to providing an adequate biological base by developing conservation plans for each bird group (landbirds, waterbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl) during the next 5 years.

Work at the Bird Conservation Region Level: Quebec is an immense territory covering over 1,667,000 square kilometers. Six Bird Conservation Regions (BCR) highlight the Province’s many ecological facets. Listed from south to north: BCR 13 (Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain); BCR 14 (Atlantic Northern Forest); BCR 12 (Boreal Harwood Transition); BCR 8 (Boreal Softwood Shield); BCR 7 (Taiga Shield and Hudson Plains); and BCR 3 (Arctic Plains and Mountains).

Quebec’s NABCI implementation will follow an approach that best corresponds to regional needs and issues. The Province promotes the participation of all persons and jurisdictions whose activities impact bird conservation and encourages regional planning workshops. These workshops will help researchers revise the prioritization of species and sites to be protected. Strategic BCR conservation plans will be developed based on the results of these workshops.

Use the Synergy of Other Conservation Initiatives: Several bird conservation implementation models exist in Canada. In most cases, conservation partnerships are linked to one or more North American Waterfowl Management Plan (Plan) joint ventures. Quebec will use Plan updates and other bird conservation plans to ensure consistent implementation that supports the NABCI vision.

Inform and Increase Awareness as Implementation Tools: The conservation of birds and their habitats depends upon participation and sharing of information. Quebec will promote voluntary best management practices related to bird conservation through outreach tools aimed at increasing awareness. For example, Quebec has developed a provincial NABCI Web site: www.qc.ec.gc.ca/faune/ICOAN-NABCI/ICOAN-NABCI.html.

Create a Network of Partners with Common Interests: Quebec has created “The Flight,” a cooperative network for the conservation of the Province’s birds and their habitats. This innovative model serves as an information exchange forum offering various participation options. Those interested in joining the forum are requested to sign a memorandum of understanding. The agreement formalizes the commitment of citizens, municipalities, government, and nongovernmental organizations to support and participate in bird conservation initiatives at the provincial and regional levels.

The success of NABCI, and of biodiversity conservation in general, depends entirely on the active participation, enthusiasm, and dedication of all participants. Quebec is leading the way in Canada for NABCI implementation. Join The Flight!

Contact Luc Bélanger, Manager, Migratory Birds Division, Canadian Wildlife Service, 1141 Route de l’Eglise, Sainte-Foy, Quebec G1V 4H5, (418) 649-6300, luc.belanger@ec.gc.ca.

Mi Shorebird Es Su Shorebird
by Nancy Streeter, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

It started long ago with a fun, educational festival in Homer, Alaska. Bird enthusiasts, researchers, teachers, students, and curious residents alike were gathering each May to celebrate and document a 2-week-long phenomenon—the visit of hundreds of thousands of migrating shorebirds to Kachemak Bay, en route to Arctic breeding grounds. Then, one year a local teacher had a brilliant idea: create a way for students along this route to share information with each other about the birds’ movements as they traveled through the various schools’ locations. Together, they could track this amazing northward journey. After much hard work and dedication, some 17 schools from California to Alaska were connected via email, and in 1994, the Shorebird Sister Schools Program became a virtual reality, literally.

Since then, the program flourished beyond its initial format and focus on the Pacific Flyway. Diverse partnerships in every flyway across the United States and in several other countries are supporting and broadening the program. Its three main components include a grade 2 through 12 educators’ guide for teachers, an email listserve for all participants, and a Web site that people all around the world enjoy. Without strong partnerships between schools, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, ornithologists, and volunteers, none of this would have been possible.

Efforts to chronicle and raise awareness about the long, demanding journeys and habitat needs of migratory shorebirds throughout the Western Hemisphere are enriched by the participation of partners in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Thanks to them, as well as to U.S. partners, several products and services are now available in Spanish. For example, Yuririra Blanco Castillo, Mexico coordinator, translated the new program brochure and the comprehensive educators’ guide. Adriana Cafferata, South America coordinator based in Argentina, translates email messages for the listserve, and reviews and edits materials to be offered in Spanish. With funding from the American Birding Association, a professional translator in Costa Rica produced a Spanish version of the program’s new Student Activity Guide, a 36-page, educational, shorebird-theme booklet filled with word games and puzzles.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), which manages the National Wildlife Refuge System, coordinates the Shorebird Sister Schools Program. Last spring, the Service planned an event that benefitted both, hosting an International Migratory Bird Day fun run/walk at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. This refuge is an important stopover site for shorebirds migrating between South America and the Arctic. The Service, Friends of the Refuge, and the Chincoteague Natural History Association sponsored the event, which raised $625. Eagle Optics kindly matched that amount, and the total proceeds were donated to GUYRA Paraguay, a conservation organization and program partner. This funding enabled GUYRA Paraguay to buy 13 pairs of binoculars and one spotting scope, greatly enhancing field trips for students. Chincoteague Elementary School’s Conservation Club members and the Paraguayan students have since established friendships as pen pals—another fun activity offered and arranged by the program.

As more educational products become available in Spanish, the Service hopes to be welcoming many more sister schools—“escuelas hermanas”—from Latin America, into the program.

For more information, contact Sandy Spakoff, National Coordinator of the Shorebird Sister Schools Program, Division of Education Outreach, National Conservation Training Center, 698 Conservation Way, Shepherdstown, West Virginia 25443, (304) 876-7319, sssp@fws.gov, http://sssp.fws.gov.

Rising from the Ashes
by Rick Burkman

A mysterious clicking sound, incessant and rhythmic, echoes across the vast expanse of a wet sedge meadowland at Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “Tik-tik, tik-tik-tik,” the noise, sounding like two stones tapping together, replays again and again in a 2-3 pattern through the star-speckled night. The staccato tapping is the territorial song of one of North America’s most unusual and little known birds, the mysterious yellow rail.

Wet sedge meadows go hand-in-glove with yellow rails in the upper Midwest. At the refuge, a regional “hotspot” for the rails, the sedge meadow landscape is dominated by Carex lasiocarpa, commonly known as the wiregrass sedge—an ideal plant for yellow rails. It grows up to 3 feet tall during the spring and summer, and as summer moves into autumn, the golden stems die and fall over, creating a loose, flexible mat under which yellow rails can find cover in the spring. Their large feet allow them to walk on top of the loose senescent layer, but they prefer to burrow into and under the vegetation, creeping mouse-like as they hide from predators and go about their business of the day.

Changing water levels keep these wetlands in a continual state of succession. In dry conditions, shrubby plants like bog birch, tag alder, and small willows encroach on the habitat, crowding out the wiregrass sedge. Invasive grasses colonize the meadows, displacing the sedges and forming a senescent mat too tangled and thick for yellow rails to walk through, and the aquatic invertebrates that the rails feed upon decrease in numbers. If water levels rise too high, the senescent layers of sedge disappear. Even small changes in the sedge-dominated terrain will force the yellow rails to look elsewhere for breeding territories.

However, it is possible to renew and maintain the rails’ habitat. Fires occasionally sweep across the wet landscape depositing a thin layer of ash that is quickly absorbed into the acidic soil. The fire sets back grass succession and destroys shrubs trying to overtake the landscape. After a fire, wiregrass sedge grows with renewed vigor, and as its life cycle ends, it once again forms a senescent mat suitable for yellow rail habitation.

At the refuge, there is an ongoing program designed to preserve the uniqueness of the wet sedge meadows. When conditions are right, the refuge staff, in cooperation with Michigan Department of Natural Resources and USDA Forest Service personnel, conduct prescribed burns. They alternate burn areas so that there is always fresh sedge habitat available to the rails and the other species that thrive in this terrain, such as sharp-eyed kestrels and skittish sharp-tailed grouse.

The life history of the yellow rail is still a mystery. Patterns of migration, causes of mortality, and destinations after nesting are questions that still need answers. Coordinated research may solve some of these riddles. What we do know is that with proper land management yellow rails will be able to skulk in these remote wetlands for many years to come.

For more information, contact Mike Tansy, Wildlife Biologist, Seney National Wildlife Refuge, 1674 Refuge Entrance Road, Seney, Michigan 49883, (906) 586-9851, mike_tansey@fws.gov.

Aliens Among Us: A Strategic Plan for Canada
by Beth MacNeil, Environment Canada

The introduction and spread of invasive alien species (IAS) into Canadian ecosystems is growing at an alarming rate, affecting Canada’s economy, environment, and society, including human health. According to the World Conservation Union, IAS are the second most significant threat to biodiversity.

Alien species are defined as species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms introduced by human action outside their natural past or present distribution. Examples of recently detected species and diseases in Canada include the Asian long-horned beetle, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, West Nile virus, sudden oak death syndrome, green crab, multinucleate sphere X, and emerald ash borer. The associated economic costs are staggering. For example, the cost related to 16 of these species now in Canada has been conservatively calculated at between CN$13 and CN$34 billion per year.

In response to the growing economic and environmental pressures of IAS, Article 8(h) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy (1995), the ministers responsible for forests, wildlife, endangered species, and fisheries and aquaculture recognized the need for a coordinated, collaborative, action-oriented approach to addressing IAS. Environment Canada is leading the development of a national plan to address IAS threats by working with other federal departments and the provincial and territorial governments. The draft plan proposes to respond to the IAS challenge through a hierarchical approach that prioritizes prevention of new species invasions, early detection of new invaders, rapid response to new invaders, and management of established and spreading IAS through containment, eradication, and control.

The Canadian approach addresses IAS in both the terrestrial and aquatic landscapes. A task group established under the Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers is considering the primary pathways of species introduction into freshwater and marine ecosystems, including ballast water and hull fouling associated with shipping, recreational boating, and the aquarium trade. Once the pathway analysis and consultations have been completed, detailed action plans will be developed.

For terrestrial ecosystems, consideration is being given to both invasive plants (including pests and disease) and invasives that impact animals (primarily wildlife disease). An analysis of the animal traffic entering Canada will be completed over the next year. Consideration of a North American program of cooperation has also been formally recognized by both Canada and the United States.

The National Plan to Address the Threat of Invasive Alien Species is expected to be approved by respective ministers in the fall of 2004. Once endorsement has been received, a phased-in implementation of the top priorities outlined in the terrestrial and aquatic operational plans (to be completed no later than the fall of 2005) will begin. Much work remains to effectively address IAS. However, this national plan will put Canada in a much better position to at least slow, if not halt, the rate of species invasions into the country.

For more information, contact Beth MacNeil, Chief, Nature Priorities Division, Environment Canada, 351 St. Joseph Boulevard, 8th Floor, Gatineau, Quebec (819) 953-2487, beth.macneil@ec.gc.ca, www.bco.ec.gc.ca.