Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network is a collaborative regional partnership that works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. This presentation’s speaker was Jena Volpe, a KSON steering committee member and Fire Ecologist with the Medford BLM. She discussed the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Environmental Assessment (IVM-RL EA), which creates a toolbox for the BLM to increase the scope, scale, and pace of proactive treatments over a 10 year period.
The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) is holding its second quarterly meeting of 2022 on Thursday, April 28th from 9-10:30 am. This collaborative regional partnership works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. Our speaker this month is Jena Volpe, a KSON steering committee member and Fire Ecologist with the Medford BLM. She will be discussing the Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Environmental Assessment (IVM-RL EA), which creates a toolbox for the BLM to increase the scope, scale, and pace of proactive treatments over a 10 year period. Please email mlm@klamathbird.org for the Zoom link.
This collaborative regional partnership works to conserve oak habitats on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. This KSON quarterly meeting includes an introductory presentation on the partnership.
On June 27, 2015 the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) will host an Oak Woodland Restoration Field Day, designed to provide an opportunity for landowners and land managers to learn about oak restoration on their lands. This half-day event will be held at several properties in the Colestin Valley between Ashland and Yreka, where a large-scale private lands oak conservation partnership program has been underway for the past decade. A series of presentations by restoration professionals, agency managers, wildlife biologists, and private landowners will highlight current oak restoration and management approaches, the habitat value of oaks for birds and other native wildlife, and how landowners can access technical resources and funding for restoration.
The KSON partnership conserves oak habitats on private and public lands in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of southern Oregon and northern California. KSON partners include non-governmental organizations, local state and federal agencies, Native American tribes, and private citizens. The Oak Woodland Restoration Field Day represents an important part of KSON’S goal to promote oak conservation and restoration by providing opportunities for practitioners and community members to engage on issues affecting threatened oak habitats. KSON members from Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Klamath Bird Observatory, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resource Conservation Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service will be present to offer their unique perspectives on oak restoration. This event will be an excellent opportunity for landowners and managers to meet others who share an interest in habitat conservation and restoration of oak savannas and woodlands, and to discuss the best ways to preserve these precious natural resources into the future.
The Field Day is free, but space is limited and registration is required. This event is planned for 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, and participants will need to provide their own lunch. For more information, including registration and carpool information from Ashland or Yreka, or for more information about KSON, please contact KSON Coordinator Kate Halstead at 541-201-0866 ext 7#, or at keh@klamathbird.org.
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kate Halstead, Biologist & KSON Coordinator
Klamath Bird Observatory
keh@klamathbird.org
541-201-0866, ext 7#
Klamath Bird Observatory’s collaborative conservation planning approach is fueled with results from partner-driven science programs. These science programs use birds as indicators of the healthy and resilient ecosystems on which we all depend. The science involves three coordinated aspects:
Long-term monitoring that provides information about broad-scaled changes in the condition of our world;
More in-depth theoretical research about how natural and human influences affect our land, air, and water; and
We bring results from our integrated science program to bear through an education and science delivery approach involving partner-driven engagement in conservation planning. With science, we are informing critical decisions being made today that will have lasting influences into the future.
Klamath Bird Observatory Science-based Conservation:
Local, Regional, and International
Klamath Bird Observatory’s award-winning conservation model is applied at local, regional, and international scales.
We developed our model locally in the ruggedly beautiful and wildlife-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion of northern California and southern Oregon where we maintain intensive science and conservation planning efforts.
We now provide scientific resources and decision support across the Pacific Northwest region through the Avian Knowledge Northwest node of the Avian Knowledge Network.
Our intensive professional education and international capacity building programs expand our influence into Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean where we actively support partners who are applying our model through a network of locally driven programs aimed at protecting birds throughout their breeding, migration, and wintering ranges.
Klamath Bird Observatory Conservation Model Applied:
Restoration for Oak Woodland Birds and Their Habitats
Our work to advance oak woodland conservation provides a classic example of this model in action. Our science provides:
A clear sign that oak woodland bird populations are in decline;
Information about their habitat needs and the possible influence of climate change on their health and distribution; and
Results that tell us what kind of management actions benefit these species.
Armed with this information we identify conservation priorities and projects to benefit oak related species in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. We offer specific guidance for broad-scaled restoration of oak habitats in the Pacific Northwest. In northern California and southern Oregon we are partnering to design, fund, and evaluate specific restoration projects on public and private lands, ensuring on-the-ground benefits to birds. Our leadership in the Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) cultivates partnerships that have resulted in over $6 million for on-the-ground restoration that is driven by our conservation planning approach. KSON oak conservation programs have been highlighted in the last two national State of the Birds reports and received the U.S. Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award.
The Klamath Bird Observatory
Advancing bird and habitat conservation through
science, education, and partnerships
A new national report released today by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, and contributed to by local science-based non-profit Klamath Bird Observatory, highlights the considerable extent to which native bird populations in the United States depend on private lands. Significantly, the 2013 State of the Birds Report on Private Lands also demonstrates that conservation action on private lands is not just for the birds; landowners and the general public benefit from conservation actions that result in cleaner air and water and more resilient and productive landscapes.
Throughout our nation, some two million ranchers and farmers and about 10 million woodland owners look after 1.43 billion acres, or roughly 60% of the land area of the United States. These private lands support more than 300 forest-breeding bird species, and several grassland birds have more than 90% of their distribution on private lands. Waterfowl also depend heavily on private lands. Innovative conservation partnerships are changing the face of private lands conservation as private landowners see real benefits and neighbors follow suit through so-called “contagious conservation.”
In our own backyard, Klamath Bird Observatory is partnering with Lomakatsi Restoration Project, US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and private landowners, and using birds to guide restoration on 2,000 acres of private oak woodlands in southern Oregon and northern California. This unique collaboration—the Central Umpqua-Mid Klamath Oak Conservation Project—received the 2012 Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award and is restoring one of the West Coast’s most imperiled and biologically rich habitats, benefiting Oak Titmouse, Acorn Woodpecker, and Black-throated Gray Warbler. (To learn more about oaks ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest, download Klamath Bird Observatory and American Bird Conservancy’s Land Manager’s Guide to Bird Habitat and Populations in Oak Ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest, as well as the supplemental guide that features species accounts.)
Klamath Bird Observatory advances bird and habitat conservation in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion and beyond, and has contributed to the high-profile annual State of the Birds reports since the initial report in 2009. Klamath Bird Observatory believes that bird conservation is relevant to every American because the same landscapes that support diverse and abundant bird communities also provide vital services to humans.
John Alexander and Jaime Stephens from Klamath Bird Observatory, and Marko Bey from Lomakatsi Restoration Project, will discuss the 2013 State of the Birds Report on Private Lands on Jefferson Public Radio’s news and information program Jefferson Exchange on Wednesday, July 10th from 9:00am until 10:00am. Tune-in to learn more about what birds tell us about the state of the environment; how these local organizations are working with private landowners to provide benefits for landowners, wildlife, and society; and how America’s famous land ethic—articulated by Aldo Leopold—is being realized.
Access this Press Release in PDF Format by clicking here. To listen to the Jefferson Exchange interview with John Alexander, Jaime Stephens, and Marko Bey by clicking here.
Contact
Klamath Bird Observatory 541-201-0866 PO Box 758 Ashland, Oregon 97520
The 
