Citizens & Science Elevating Bird Conservation

May 30th, May 31st, and June 1st, 2014

Ashland, Oregon

Mark your calendar, the first-ever Mountain Bird Festival is coming! Klamath Bird Observatory will host this community conservation event next spring in Ashland, Oregon. Our vision is to create a festival that combines a celebration of nature with the stewardship ethic needed to ensure thriving landscapes for humans and wildlife. Every citizen who participates in this festival will become a significant steward of the science that drives bird conservation.

The idea for this festival began several years ago with KBO Board President Harry Fuller. Harry is a dedicated birder and indefatigable birdwatching guide. As Harry took clients on birding trips throughout the region, he noticed how impressed they were with the birdlife as well as the region’s many other attractions.

We hope you attend the festival for the guided bird walks and keynote presentations and stay for the destination lunches, fine art, music, and more. We will have half-day and full day field trips both Saturday and Sunday. For non-birders Ashland provides a variety of activities. There are over a dozen boutique wineries within a half hour’s drive. The downtown has many interesting shops and galleries. There are brewpubs, book stores, coffee shops, boutiques, movie theatres and a variety of specialty shops. Of course, Ashland is home of the widely acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival with afternoon and evening plays all three days of the festival; be sure and get your tickets well in advance.

KBO will be working closely with the City of Ashland, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, and many others.

Some of our target birds are: Redhead, Common Merganser, Mountain Quail, nesting Sandhill Cranes, nesting Osprey, Ferruginous Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, dancing Western and Clark’s Grebes, Wilson’s Snipe, Black Terns, Great Gray Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Vaux’s Swift, Calliope Hummingbird, Prairie Falcon, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, White-headed Woodpecker, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher, Cassin’s Vireo, Mountain Chickadee, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Townsend’s Solitaire, Mountain Bluebird, Hermit Warbler, MacGillivray’s Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, Vesper Sparrow, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Lazuli Bunting.

Visit the Klamath Bird Observatory website for Mountain Bird Festival updates and registration information by clicking this link.

This article is the seventh installment in the series Achieving Partners in Flight Strategic Goals and Objectives.  

Klamath Bird Observatory is working with local restoration partners to integrate Partners in Flight priorities and objectives into private lands restoration programs.  The Central Umpqua Mid Klamath Oak Habitat Conservation Project, funded by the NRCS Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, is a landscape-scale effort to restore oak woodlands on private lands in southern Oregon and northern California.  As a part of this project 15 public and private partners leveraged over $3.8 million to restore 2,000 acres of Oregon white oak habitat.  

Lomakatsi Restoration Project and Klamath Bird Observatory are using objectives from regional Partners in Flight (PIF) conservation plans to guide the restoration.  Habitat objectives for Oak Titmouse, Acorn Woodpecker, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and other oak woodland species are providing details for management prescriptions designed to create oak woodland habitat mosaics, restore native perennial grasses, and reintroduce natural fire regimes whenever possible.  Bird monitoring is being integrated into habitat monitoring efforts to assess the effectiveness of restoration based on PIF population objectives. This unique collaboration received the 2012 Department of Interior Partners in Conservation Award.  

Download the Partners in Flight Conservation Brief for this project by clicking here. Also see the 2013 State of the Birds Report on Private Lands that highlighted this collaborative oak restoration project in the section on western forest conservation.

This article is the sixth installment in the series Achieving Partners in Flight Strategic Goals and Objectives.

An important bird conservation goal is to integrate Partners in Flight priorities and objectives into public agency natural resource planning and action.  Partners in Flight uses a science-based method for bird conservation that incorporates a multi-species approach for assessing landbird vulnerabilities and needs, setting measurable conservation targets, describing management to meet these targets, and measuring the effectiveness of conservation actions. This approach can help land managers meet their ecosystem management needs. By aligning science, planning, and implementation among partners, we can more strategically implement actions that address priority science and habitat needs.

This strategic goal builds upon ten examples that illustrate both the process and science behind bird conservation throughout the western United States.  These examples were recently featured in Informing Ecosystem Management: Science and Process for Landbird Conservation in the Western United States, a Biological Technical Publication published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  The publication (1) describes how bird conservation and effectiveness monitoring can be integrated into land management guidelines with an emphasis on partnerships, and (2) presents case studies which highlight bird monitoring within the adaptive management framework.  The publication emphasizes both the science of monitoring and the process of its integration into land management because both are necessary in order for effectiveness monitoring to fully impact decision making.

Collaborating with national and regional partners, Klamath Bird Observatory is working toward better integrating the Partners in Flight approach within federal management planning and implementation.  At the 2012 annual meeting of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, we had an opportunity to present specific examples of how the tools developed by Partners in Flight can tie into natural resource management planning to an array of national resource management leaders.  We then teamed up with partners in Oregon and Washington to take the message on the road, presenting a traveling workshop that provided training to a wider audience on the use of Partners in Flight tools for assessing conservation needs, setting quantifiable management objectives, evaluating management alternatives, and monitoring management effectiveness.

We are now following up with regional partners to provide guidance on the process for identifying species that can serve as indicators of habitat and/or ecosystem condition at geographic scales appropriate for various land management and monitoring purposes.  We are working with Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management partners to develop projects that focus on using Partners in Flight’s conservation planning process in support of broad scaled and project level planning.  The recently published Habitat Conservation for Landbirds in Coniferous Forests of Western Oregon and Washington (Oregon-Washington Partners in Flight) is serving to guide these efforts.  This plan identifies 25 focal species that collectively represent the important habitat components of a functioning coniferous forest ecosystem.

A Traveling Workshop

By Barb Bresson, US Forest Service and BLM Regional Avian Program Manager This article is the fifth installment in the series Achieving Partners in Flight Strategic Goals and Objectives. Partners in Flight’s science-based method for bird conservation incorporates a multi-species approach for assessing landbird vulnerabilities and needs, setting measurable conservation targets, describing management to meet these targets, and measuring the effectiveness of conservation actions. One of Partners in Flight’s goals is to integrate its science-based approach into public agency planning and actions in order to advance bird conservation while helping land managers meet ecosystem management objectives. The Oregon-Washington Chapter of Partners in Flight developed a traveling workshop to provide information to land managers about bird conservation processes, priorities, and tools. The Chapter began developing the workshops during the winter of 2012, and the focus was on Partners in Flight’s science-based tools that support ecosystem management. The objective was to demonstrate how these various tools can be used for assessing conservation needs, setting quantifiable management objectives, evaluating management alternatives, and monitoring management effectiveness. The sessions were structured to review current policies and plans, discuss the pros and cons of the various species lists available, and present information on the Joint Ventures and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.  Other topics included bird conservation within the context of ecological forestry, focal species as measurable indicators of desired management conditions, and the consistent use of Partners in Flight science-based tools within the National Environmental Policy Act (a.k.a. NEPA).  Our presenters included John Alexander (Klamath Bird Observatory), Bob Altman (American Bird Conservancy and Pacific Coast Joint Venture), Dan Casey (American Bird Conservancy and Intermountain West Coast Joint Venture), Mike Green (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Aaron Holmes (Point Blue Conservation Science and Northwest Wildlife Science), and Jaime Stephens (Klamath Bird Observatory). The material covered in the sessions was considered essential to those involved in on-the-ground bird conservation and was geared toward the major habitats found throughout the bi-state area (i.e., mixed conifer, oak woodlands, sage brush, and ponderosa pine habitats). Four locations throughout Oregon and Washington were selected for the workshops. The sites were carefully chosen to minimize the amount of travel and overnight stays required for participants; instead, the cadre of 6 individuals who presented the workshops took on the driving and overnight stays. The workshops were all one day in length; they began at 10:00 a.m. (allowing for morning travel) and ended at 4:00 p.m. The workshops were open to both government and non-government personnel, and workshop participants registered in advance for one of the 4 workshop locations. A total of 146 people attended the 4 workshops; of these, 94 people were from a federal agency, 43 were from NGOs, and 9 were from state agencies. Region Six of the Forest Service contributed $20,000 plus staff time for coordinating the sessions. Partners from Klamath Bird Observatory, American Bird Conservancy, Northwest Wildlife Science, Intermountain West Joint Venture, Pacific Coast Joint Venture, Point Blue Conservation Science, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, and Natural Resource Conservation Service contributed $10,000 in-kind in staff time. By holding the workshops in multiple locations we calculated a savings of approximately $195,000 associated with travel and lodging costs and staff time. Partners in Flight intends to replicate these workshops throughout the various Bird Conservation Regions across the country.  Oregon-Washington Partners in Flight members are available to participate, advise and assist any regions that are willing to present a similar avian conservation message. The training materials, including all the power point presentations, can be found under “workshops” on the Oregon-Washington Chapter of Partners in Flight web page.

Saving Our Shared Birds

By Sarah Rockwell, Klamath Bird Observatory Research Biologist I just returned from the 5th International Partners in Flight Conference at the beautiful Snowbird Resort outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. This meeting brought together scientists and natural resource managers from various sectors with a lofty goal: to set a vision for the conservation of birds in the Western Hemisphere. The theme of the week was full life cycle conservation—thinking about how to protect birds and their habitats not only where we encounter them in the North, but also on their migration and at wintering sites in Mexico and Central America. We separated into groups defined by connected breeding and wintering habitats, and each group identified conservation priorities and proposed several specific projects to address existing threats to birds and habitat. We put special emphasis on identifying areas where overwintering migrant species and Latin American endemic birds overlap, in order to maximize the benefit of our conservation dollars. Forty-some participants from Latin America attended the meeting to add their expertise and contribute to the discussion. In the working group I attended (western coniferous forest birds migrating to Mexican oak-pine highlands) there was a consensus that one of the biggest threats facing birds on both sides of the US-Mexico border is non-optimal forest management, relating to fire and logging practices. For example, Lewis’s and White-headed Woodpeckers in Oregon, as well as Thick-billed and Maroon-fronted Parrots in Mexico, rely on standing dead trees for nesting cavities—and some fire management and logging practices do not leave enough of these snags standing, which limits breeding sites for these species. As a group, we designed a top priority project involving demonstration sites in all three regions (North America, Mexico, and Central America) where different landscape-level forest management practices can be tested and their effects on bird populations measured. Such a large-scale, multi-national cooperative research effort is new, unique, and exciting. The Latin American presence at the conference was salient outside of work hours as well. Following daytime meetings and evening networking and social events, someone always managed to find some speakers and then the salsa music would begin! I met folks from Klamath Bird Observatory’s international partner organizations for the first time—Luis Morales of the San Pancho Bird Observatory in Nayarit, Mexico, and Pablo Elizondo from Costa Rica Bird Observatories—and I enjoyed a few turns around the dance floor with each of them. There was even an open mic night, where people read poems and performed songs (often bird-themed) in both English and Spanish. I was most impressed by the collaborative atmosphere at the conference and the international partnerships that formed as people joined together to help save our shared birds.

Highlights from the Partners in Flight Conference

By John D. Alexander, Klamath Bird Observatory Executive Director Klamath Bird Observatory took a leadership role last week at the 5th International Partners in Flight meeting in Snowbird, Utah.  This meeting involved a broad set of collaborators, including more than 225 conservation leaders from 120 federal, state, and non-governmental organizations and academic institutions representing 14 countries.  Participants worked together to develop continental-scale bird conservation business plans that are based on groups of migratory birds, the habitats where they occur throughout their life cycle, and the human communities that also depend on these habitats for their natural resource needs. Klamath Bird Observatory’s John Alexander, Jaime Stephens, and Sarah Rockwell worked with partners to develop a conservation business plan for birds that breed in western forests and winter in high elevation pine-oak habitats and cloud forests in Mexico and Central America.  Through collaborative dialogue, a diverse set of high-priority conservation projects emerged. These projects focus on improving sustainable forest management and landscape conservation practices through the use of science-based bird conservation objectives. Importantly, these projects also give attention to the needs of local communities. Here are some highlights that Jaime Stephens—Klamath Bird Observatory’s Science Director—shared from the meeting: “It was extremely valuable to speak with new Mexican partners who work in the high elevation pine-oak habitats and cloud forests in Mexico where many of our Pacific Northwest breeding birds spend their winters. I gained a better understanding of the conservation challenges that exist south of the border, and we identified common opportunities to restore fire regimes and other natural processes that increase the resiliency of forested landscapes. These are important steps in achieving full life cycle conservation of our shared migratory birds.”

The stories that private landowners tell me often reflect a land ethic with diverse roots.  These stories draw from their experiences with family, or from time spent gardening, farming, or hunting, and they nearly always reveal an appreciation of the natural world.  Many first-time landowners develop a new awareness of their surroundings.  Owning land can facilitate an unintentional, yet intensive, self-study of a person’s place, whether it is their yard in the city or 20 acres in the country.  Quite often this awareness includes the birds that are singing melodies in the early hours of the day, and it directs attention to the seasons, marked by the arrival of brightly colored birds and then marked again by their all too sudden departure.  The combination of understanding and appreciating a piece of land can lead to conservation actions, both small and large.

Klamath Bird Observatory works with private landowners to encourage bird-friendly practices.  Working with our partners, we also guide and assess restoration on private lands.  We use birds as indicators of the health of the environment because they are diverse and individual species represent specific ecological conditions.  Similarly to each individual landowner, each bird species has its own story to tell.  By listening to those stories we can learn about the quality of the habitats that birds inhabit and identify restoration actions that can improve the health of the land.

For private landowners considering restoration of their land, understanding the existing and potential future bird community is a good way to grasp the ecological changes that are possible through restoration.  Recently, KBO has been working with a number of landowners who are implementing oak restoration.  When we visit lands prior to restoration, the bird community we hear tells us about the current habitat characteristics.  For example, in a mixed-conifer forest with an oak component we will detect a mixture of birds that prefer both conifers and oaks, or sometimes only conifer-associated birds, such as Red-breasted Nuthatch, Spotted Towhee, Hermit Warbler, and Pacific-slope Flycatcher.  If a landowner’s goal is to restore the historic oak woodland, we would expect to see a dramatic shift in the bird community after restoration, to bird species such as White-breasted Nuthatch, California Towhee, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Ash-throated Flycatcher.  After learning to identify some of the common birds, landowners begin to see the links between birds and their habitats, and also the possibilities for their land.

This article appears in KBO’s Summer 2013 Newsletter.

The Rotary Foundation and Rotary District 5110 of Oregon and northern California have awarded a Humanitarian Grant of $12,000 to fund an international capacity building project to be implemented in partnership with San Pancho Bird Observatory in Mexico and Ashland-based Klamath Bird Observatory.  The Rotary Club of Ashland, collaborating with the Jaltemba Bay Rotary Club of Mexico and supported by Shasta Valley, Bend High Desert, and Cottage Grove Rotary Clubs of District 5110, initially promoted this project and provided the funding required to receive matching awards from Rotary District 5110 and The Rotary Foundation.

This grant will allow the implementation and completion of a project focused on bird conservation and sustainable community development in western Mexico.  This project builds on Klamath Bird Observatory’s successful model of developing professional, economic, educational, and conservation capacities in Latin American and Caribbean countries through a grassroots science-based approach to international migratory bird conservation.

A growing tourism industry along the Nayarit coast in Mexico offers low-paying employment that draws Mexican youth out of rural communities where there are fewer career options. Away from their families, these youth become easy recruits into prostitution and drug mafias, leading to the disintegration of social structure. Furthermore, existing tourism projects cause habitat loss that can result in population declines of resident and migratory birds. San Pancho Bird Observatory will use grant funds to build local capacity for careers in science and ecotourism that can benefit communities, maintain social structure, and protect natural resources of global significance.

With support from Klamath Bird Observatory, San Pancho Bird Observatory will train 20 Mexican participants on the science of monitoring bird populations during a two-week workshop in the Pacific State of Nayarit. Workshop participants will then return to their respective communities and develop bird monitoring programs that collectively track the health of Mexican bird populations in the region. Additionally, San Pancho Bird Observatory will offer community education programs in at least six coastal villages to inspire an appreciation for birds and build capacity for birdwatching-based tourism. San Pancho Bird Observatory will also strengthen the connections among coastal Nayarit communities to create networks for support and information exchange related to sustainable development.

This project applies principles of sustainability and recognizes the links between ecosystem conservation, social equity, and economic development. The project meets an international bird conservation priority by building science capacity for Mexican conservation leaders, and also meets economic and community development goals of The Rotary Foundation. Dr. John Alexander, Klamath Bird Observatory’s Executive Director, calls the awarding of this grant “a significant event with regard to sustainability and the links between ecological well-being, economic well-being, and human well-being.”

Click here to access a PDF of this press release.

— Brandon Breen

KBO Speaks to Jefferson Exchange about the State of the Birds on Private Lands

John Alexander and Jaime Stephens from Klamath Bird Observatory and Marko Bey from Lomakatsi Restoration Project spoke with the Jefferson Exchange radio program about the status and health of bird populations in the United States. Their conversation follows the release of the 2013 US State of the Birds Report on Private Lands, which draws attention to the considerable extent to which native bird populations depend on private lands. In southern Oregon and northern California, Klamath Bird Observatory and Lomakatsi Restoration Project are teaming up with other organizations and private landowners to restore oak ecosystems on private lands for the benefit of wildlife, including numerous bird species such as the Oak Titmouse and Black-throated Gray Warbler. Listen to the full radio interview here:

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 10^th 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.