Amidst steep, continental declines in grassland bird populations, here in the forested Northeast we're finding surprising opportunities to enhance grassland bird populations. Grassland birds in Vermont and other northeastern states readily take advantage of open grass-dominated areas such as abandoned or fallow fields, working agricultural lands, and municipal airports.
VCE is partnering with local landowners and community members though our New England Grasslands Ambassadors program. The project's objectives are to identify strongholds of grassland bird habitat in New England, and enlist willing landowners to enhance habitat for the Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, and other grassland bird species in economically feasible ways. Some of our work was featured in the PBS film, Plight of the Grassland Birds.
A native midwestern tallgrass prairie © David Besenger, MO Dept. of Conservation
In the project’s first field season (2013), VCE collaborated with New Hampshire Audubon to recruit 27 citizen scientists. With Jamie Sydoriak (a now-graduated Plymouth State University graduate student) in the lead, the team of volunteers surveyed 230 fields in a 1,170 square mile area. The following year, Jamie returned to those identified hotspots to learn from landowners about how they interact with grasslands birds on their properties. In 2015, Cathryn Abbott came on as our grasslands outreach specialist, and expanded our reach to other parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, and northeast into Maine. In 2016-18 she fostered more connections in the Upper Valley, providing landowners with advice and resources to support their management for birds.
We continue reaching out to other organizations to develop partnerships to establish and maintain long-term landowner options to provide habitat for grassland birds. One key to a sustainable program will be “grassland ambassadors”: landowners or other conservationist who not only manage their own property to benefit wildlife, but also might serve as a resource to other landowners. If you are an interested individual or landowner who would like to participate, please contact us at . In the meantime download our Bobolink Nesting Calendar and our guide for landowners.
Cover image © Becky Manning
