Tag: oak habitat

News Release: Population and Habitat Objectives for Landbirds in Prairies, Oak, and Riparian Habitats of Western Oregon and Washington

The newly released conservation plan, Population and Habitat Objectives for Landbirds in Prairies, Oak, and Riparian Habitats of Western Oregon and Washington (Rockwell et al 2022), provides quantitative and multi-scaled population and habitat objectives for 26 focal and seven imperiled bird species. As the title suggests, the plan focuses on prairie, oak, and riparian habitats in the Puget Lowlands, Willamette Valley, and Klamath Mountains ecoregions of western Oregon and Washington. This document was prepared for the Oregon-Washington Chapter of Partners in Flight (PIF), Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service.

This document is an updated version of the Conservation Strategy for Landbirds in the Lowlands and Valleys of Western Oregon and Washington (Altman 2000). Among PIF bird conservation plans, this plan like its predecessor has quantitative and prescriptive objectives that were established for habitat attributes important to landbird species.


“This important document provides both land managers and bird conservationists answers to the essential questions of how much, where, and by when,” says Bob Altman of the American Bird Conservancy “it sets a new threshold for conservation standards in regional planning.”


Recommendations included are intended to guide planning efforts and management actions of land managers, direct expenditures of government and non-government organizations, and stimulate monitoring and research to support landbird conservation. The recommendations are also expected to be the biological foundation for developing and implementing integrated conservation strategies for multiple species at multiple geographic scales to ensure functional ecosystems with healthy bird populations.


“Partnerships are the backbone of Joint Ventures. A primary role of Migratory Bird Joint Ventures is to step-down continental habitat priorities for waterfowl, waterbirds, landbirds, and shorebirds to each Joint Venture region. This plan and the unique partnership between Pacific Birds, Klamath Bird Observatory, and PIF fills this gap; it frames conservation delivery strategies, sets the stage for working towards collective goals, and helps us meet our federal mandate,“ says Sara Evans-Peters U.S. Assistant Coordinator, Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture.


The section on imperiled species is unique to this Oregon-Washington PIF plan. Imperiled species were selected based on a population estimate of <2,000 individuals in any of the three ecoregions; a high degree of association with prairie, oak, and riparian habitats; and a historic anecdotal baseline as a relatively common species. The focal species approach assumes that the suite of focal species will cover the habitat requirements of imperiled bird species, but this may not hold true for imperiled species that are ecological specialists. In this region, we are fortunate to have uniquely detailed data regarding the population status and conservation needs of many of our imperiled species. To ensure their conservation, imperiled species were recognized and given their own biological objectives and habitat attributes, as well as integrated where appropriate as species to benefit from conservation actions directed towards focal species. Highlighted below is the Oregon Vesper Sparrow.

 

This document is intended to complement the goals, objectives, and strategies in several other planning and conservation processes and initiatives by filling a niche that is usually absent in those efforts: quantitative, prescriptive recommendations for habitat conditions most suitable for individual and suites of landbird species at several geographic scales (e.g., regional, subregional, site). The use and implementation of these recommendations can be done independently for landbird-specific conservation, or complementarily within the context of broader conservation goals to support and strengthen other plans.

You can view the whole conservation plan here.

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KSON Resources

private landowner oak guide cover (72ppi 4x)Restoring Oak Habitats in Southern Oregon and Northern California: A Guide for Private Landowners describes how to apply conservation practices for Oregon white oak and California black oak habitats on private lands in southern Oregon and northern California. The document first discusses the importance and history of oak habitats and then provides detailed conservation guidelines for oak habitat restoration. Also, the guide includes supplemental resources for the restorationminded private landowner, including a list of organizations that will assist with private lands restoration as well as step-by-step instructions for monitoring birds on your land to track the return of wildlife following oak restoration activities.

 

Altman and Stephens 2012 Land managers guide to oak ecosystem cover (72ppi 4x)Land Manager’s Guide to Oak Ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest provides an overview of oak ecosystems and discusses threats to these environments with focus on the habitat relationships between birds and oak habitats.

 

 

 

 

Prairie oaks and people 72ppi 5xXPrairie, Oaks and People – A Conservation Business Plan to Revitalize the Prairie-Oak Habitats of the Pacific Northwest is a conservation strategy to help conserve oak woodlands and native prairies from northern California to British Columbia.  It outlines outlines the case for long-term investments that will restore a signature feature of the region’s historic landscape.  The oak restoration project KSON has been working on at Table Rocks is one of the projects features in the companion profile projects supplement.

 

 

Oaks 20170603 cropped (72ppi 3x)OakBirdPop is an interactive tool to inform land managers and others in the Pacific Northwest in the planning and implementation of oak habitat management and restoration actions. The goal is to help assess the projected population response of 31 oak-associated bird species to oak habitat changes. OakBirdPop serves as an interactive supplement to the Land Manager’s Guide to Bird Habitat and Populations in Oak Ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.

 

 

RCPP handout imageFor landowners in our focal region interested in learning more about funding oak restoration projects on private property, see the handout with background and contact information about recent programs.

 

Oak Habitat Conservation Projects

Central Umpqua Mid-Klamath Oak Habitat Conservation Project

KBO has been collaborating with a diverse group of partners through the Central Umpqua Mid-Klamath Oak Habitat Conservation Project, a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) funded Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative, to understand better bird-habitat relationships and the response of birds to restoration in oak woodlands.

We are working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Lomakatsi Restoration Project to implement and monitor oak restoration on private lands in Douglas and Jackson Counties in Oregon and Siskiyou County, California. Around 2,000 acres have been restored, and we completed pre-restoration monitoring in 2012. The US Department of the Interior honored this collaborative project with the Partners in Conservation Award.

Quercus and Aves

KBO contributed to a new publication on birds and oaks as part of our role in the American Bird Conservancy’s Quercus and Aves project. Click on the highlighted text to access the well-received Land Manager’s Guide to Bird Habitat and Populations in Oak Ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and its Appendix of Oak Bird Species Accounts. We also coordinated a private landowner field day during which landowners spent the morning outside with restoration practitioners, agency managers, and wildlife biologists, discussing oak restoration in the Rogue Basin, opportunities for private land restoration, and the benefits of restoration to birds and other wildlife.  KBO worked with Oregon State University in support of Kate Halstead, a Master’s student who used the data collected from this project for her thesis.

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