Conservation programs and practices administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Services Administration (FSA) clearly have the potential to deliver bird conservation benefits across broad geographical scales and in multiple habitats. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and the NRCS Resource Assessment Division used the Habitat and Populations Strategies (HABPOPS) database developed for the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IWJV) to assess the effects of conservation program and practice delivery across the intermountain West. We developed estimates of the predicted population response (change in carrying capacity) for five bird species primarily dependent on grassland and sagebrush-dominated habitats: Long-billed Curlew, Grasshopper Sparrow, Brewer's Sparrow, Sagebrush Sparrow and Sage Thrasher. Predicted population responses were compared to population objectives for portions of the three Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs) comprising the majority of the IWJV landscape. These population estimates defined the scope of potential influences of practice delivery on selected land units where 13 selected conservation practices were delivered under the EQIP, WHIP and CRP programs. We estimated that 1.5 – 4.3% of the populations of each of these five bird species occurs on the lands where our selected practices were implemented, and that practice delivery met 1 -6% of the IWJV objective increases for the analysis area populations. Potential increases on the order of 1-6% based on 7 years conservation practice implementation may be adequate progress toward the 30-yr population objectives for these species, but more targeted application of specific conservation measures is needed. For example, our analysis predicts that conservation measures implemented under the Sage Grouse Initiative (conifer removal, grazing system implementation, weed management and revegetation) have resulted in potential subregion (state/BCR) increases meeting as much as 25% or more of objectives for Sage Thrashers. Our HABPOPS decision-support tool will allow continued conservation planning and effects analysis, and focal areas have been identified for enhanced program delivery.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.