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Tag: oak restoration

KSON’s New Website and Investment Strategy!

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note.

At the Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO), we are a proud partner of the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON), which collaborates with the community and partners within the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion to promote the restoration and conservation of oak habitats. This week, we have two exciting announcements: a new website (https://oakalliance.org/partnerships/kson/) and The Prairie, Oaks, and People Investment Strategy is now LIVE!

The Prairie, Oaks, and People Investment Strategy offers an action oriented five-year strategy, with $304.2 million of ready-to-implement projects. Developed by partnerships across the Pacific Northwest, this effort brings together tribes, conservation organizations, community groups, private landowners, businesses, and government agencies in a nonpartisan commitment to conserve the oak and prairie landscape while advancing key natural disaster risk reduction strategies. The strategy identifies priority areas for investment, the strategic use of funding to achieve critical outcomes, and key sources of funding support. It highlights these landscapes’ economic, cultural, and ecological values, the importance of working lands and private landowners, elevates tribal priorities, and calls attention to the benefits of collective action and leveraging funding support. The plan includes cost estimates for needed restoration and wildlife risk reduction strategies, land protection, species recovery, and long-term land management capacity, ensuring that investments deliver durable and high impact results.

Both can be found on the new Pacific Northwest Oak Alliance website. 

Restoring Oak Habitats in Southern Oregon and North California: A Guide for Private Landowners

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in uncategorized.

For time immemorial, the oak ecosystems of southwestern Oregon and northern California have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples. Over the past century, oak-prairie ecosystems have experienced dramatic loss and degradation. An exciting opportunity exists for landowners and conservation partners to work together to restore native oak systems and their diverse wildlife communities. Private landowners own and manage roughly 60% of the land area of the United States.

These private lands sustain native wildlife populations while also benefiting landowners and society. In the western United States, private lands are especially important for the conservation of oak habitats.

This landowner guide describes how to apply conservation practices for Oregon white oak and California black oak habitats on private lands in southwestern Oregon and northern California. The document discusses the importance and history of oak habitats across three ecoregions and then provides detailed conservation guidelines for oak habitat restoration. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is woven throughout the document.

Also, the guide includes supplemental resources for the restoration-minded 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.

What’s New

  • Indigenous stewardship of oak ecocultural systems.
  • The expansion of the geographic scope into the Umpqua Basin with the addition of the Umpqua Oak Partnership.

 

 

A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science.

The Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion is a globally significant biodiversity hotspot and area of conservation concern, with some of the most extensive remaining oak ecosystems in the western United States. Oaks in this region are most threatened by conifer encroachment, fire suppression, agricultural development, incompatible grazing practices, non-native species, and severe fire.

The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) is a regional collaboration between local agencies, tribes, and non-profit organizations that works to conserve oak ecosystems on private and public lands in southern Oregon and northern California. Since 2011, KSON partners have accomplished thousands of acres of strategic ecological restoration to enhance oak habitat, build climate resilience, bolster cultural resources, and reduce wildfire risk to the ecosystem and communities. The handout A Decade of Collaborative Oak Restoration demonstrates the power of collaboration and a decade-plus of successful oak habitat restoration from 2011-2023 with highlights from Table Rock and Colestin Valley projects.

Click here to view the full document.

 

NEWS RELEASE: Oak associated bird community benefits from restoration, new paper shows

Written by KBO on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Conservation, KBO Partners, KBO Science, Press Room.

NEWS RELEASE: December 2, 2020

CONTACT: Jaime Stephens, Science Director, Klamath Bird Observatory
541‐944-2890, jlh@KlamathBird.org

Oak ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest are highly biodiverse and host more than 300 vertebrate species; yet a significant proportion of historic oak ecosystems in the region have been lost, and most remaining habitat is in a degraded state. Songbirds that are closely associated with oak ecosystems have experienced concerning declines, which is one of the reasons why research and restoration in oak habitats are priorities in our region.

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