Strategic Habitat Conservation

PLJV Helps Partners Implement Strategic Habitat Conservation

Since 2002, the PLJV has been building its foundation for strategic bird habitat conservation by aligning science, spatial habitat data, partner capacity and communications into an integrated structure and set of tools. Recently, the PLJV has been applying this strategic approach to help partners target Farm Bill programs, implement state action plans, and promote the strategic habitat conservation concept regionally.

In a nutshell, strategic habitat conservation, or SHC, follows a framework of biological planning, conservation design, conservation delivery and monitoring and research. Conservation delivery is often the hardest part of the process for agencies and the scientific community to define and implement. But the PLJV – like many JVs – have much to offer partners on delivery, as well as other components of SHC.

Perhaps the best demonstration of SHC the PLJV is currently undertaking is its work with the Farm Service Agency to help target enrollment of the CRP to benefit high priority playas and Lesser Prairie-Chickens (LEPC). The PLJV is using its spatial bird habitat data and GIS capabilities to identify the intersection of playas, cropland and LEPC range and prioritize those areas for CRP enrollment. The strategy also involves boosting local partnership and USDA field staff capacity to enroll landowners, as well as launching a strategic marketing campaign in areas targeted for enrollment. Each component has its methods for researching and monitoring effectiveness and applying what is learned back into the program.

The PLJV is also helping partners in Nebraska implement its state action plan, the Nebraska Natural Legacy Project. Partners recently hired a HABS coordinator to assist local resource managers in assessing and designing conservation projects in the state’s Biologically Unique Landscapes, or BULs, which are areas targeted for biodiversity conservation in the Legacy Project. The PLJV’s HABS database provides partners a way to be more efficient and effective in their habitat work. The database is used to model the effects of various habitat conservation programs and projects on bird populations. It can also be used to assess the benefit of already-implemented habitat projects on bird populations.

The SHC concept was officially coined and defined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Service is working to institutionalize SHC agency-wide. The PLJV was recently invited to present its work on SHC at a USFWS Project Team Leaders meeting for Region 2. The PLJV demonstrated the LEPC component of the targeted CRP enrollment project mentioned above. The PLJV plans to continue to help USFWS promote SHC within in its regional offices and to partners across the Joint Venture.

~March 2008

PLJV Helping Partners Target Bird Habitat Conservation

Over the past five years, the PLJV has developed a suite of biological planning tools to help partners target and evaluate bird habitat conservation efforts. These tools include everything from complete land cover data on the region, to a database that models bird responses to habitat changes. The JV works closely with partners to use these tools to help increase conservation efficiency.

Here are some recent examples:

Evaluating effects of CRP on priority birds in BCR 19:

It is well known that the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) supports many grassland birds - but to what extent? In order to answer that question, the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service is partnering with the PLJV and Great Plains GIS Partnership on a Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to evaluate the effects of CRP on priority birds in the mixed-grass prairie. The process involves using the JV’s Geographic Information System (GIS) and Hierarchical All-Bird Strategy (HABS) database.

The PLJV incorporated CRP land cover data into its GIS so biologists could analyze CRP in context with surrounding habitats. Landscape configuration is especially important when evaluating the program’s effects on Lesser Prairie-Chickens, which require large blocks of habitat to maintain their population. CRP can help create these large blocks of habitat by connecting areas of native prairie, sand sage and shinnery. Using GIS, PLJV is locating these areas and tabulating total acreage, which is then used in HABS to estimate landscape carrying capacity for the species.

For other priority species such as Dickcissel, Upland Sandpiper, Eastern Meadowlark and Northern Bobwhite, which may not require large block analysis, CRP acre figures are used directly in HABS to generate carrying capacities. In all, the CEAP results will be able to show how CRP affects 14 species within the mixed-grass prairie.

Initial results indicate that CRP is hugely important for most priority bird species by increasing habitat and providing connectivity of large blocks of native habitat.

Targeting CRP for Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation:

The PLJV is helping Environmental Defense Fund and the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory on a study to characterize CRP conditions within the range of Lesser Prairie-Chickens. The project involves taking vegetation point surveys across the birds’ range. The field data is then given to the JV to plot on the GIS CRP land cover layer to determine what vegetation is occurring on different CRP practices. The analysis will help biologists and Farm Bill administrators determine if CRP is providing suitable habitat for the birds.

The PLJV is also helping The Nature Conservancy of New Mexico and New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish as well as the Colorado Division of Wildlife on CRP State Areas for Wildlife Enhancement proposals to benefit Lesser Prairie-Chickens. The JV provided GIS maps showing the species’ range and CRP statistics to help them determine where CRP could be most effectively targeted to benefit the species.

Accounting of waterfowl benefits for NAWCA projects:

The PLJV worked with Ducks Unlimited’s Southern Regional Office to use HABS to help determine the waterfowl conservation contributions of two recent North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) proposals. The results were incorporated into the proposals to demonstrate the projects' value for waterfowl.

One project was Jamestown Phase II in north-central Kansas. The work there will provide approximately 1.1 million duck-use-days, or DUDs, (DUDs are the amount of food energy needed to keep a duck alive for one day) in fall and spring, representing 2.6 percent of the DUD objective for fall and 1.6 percent for spring when flooded for Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 19 of Kansas. The recently-funded Drummond Flats project near Enid, Oklahoma, will provide a whopping 4.0 million DUDs in fall and spring, representing 7 percent of the objective for fall and 4.4 percent for spring when flooded for BCR 19 of Oklahoma.

Modeling biological accomplishments of the USFWS Partners Program:

USFWS Region 6 Partners Program worked with PLJV to model the biological accomplishments of the Program's five-year habitat objectives for priority birds. JV staff took the projected bird conservation accomplishments for each Partners Focus Area and used HABS to conduct the analysis. The results will be included in the soon-to-be-completed Partners Program Strategic Plan.

~July 2007