Breeding bird use of grasslands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program in the northern Great Plains Active
Agriculture is the dominant land use on privately owned lands in the northern Great Plains of the United States. Management decisions on agricultural lands are influenced by a variety of policies and programs established by the federal government in periodic Farm Bills. In 1985, Congress passed the Food Security Act. Title XII of the Act established the Conservation Reserve Program or CRP, a voluntary, long-term, cropland retirement program that is available to agricultural producers to help safeguard environmentally sensitive land. Since 1990, Northern Prairie has evaluated breeding-bird use of several hundred grasslands enrolled in the program in four states (ND, SD, MN, and MT) in the northern Great Plains. Results from this and allied studies have been used to generate support for renewal of the CRP in subsequent Farm Bills and to make the Prairie Pothole Region a high-priority area for CRP in the United States. The results from this study also have served to inform private landowners, managers, and policy makers on program improvements for grassland birds related to CRP management (e.g., haying, grazing), grassland patch size, and seeding mixtures (native vs. exot
Below are publications associated with this project.
The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota
Effects of haying on breeding birds in CRP grasslands
- Overview
Agriculture is the dominant land use on privately owned lands in the northern Great Plains of the United States. Management decisions on agricultural lands are influenced by a variety of policies and programs established by the federal government in periodic Farm Bills. In 1985, Congress passed the Food Security Act. Title XII of the Act established the Conservation Reserve Program or CRP, a voluntary, long-term, cropland retirement program that is available to agricultural producers to help safeguard environmentally sensitive land. Since 1990, Northern Prairie has evaluated breeding-bird use of several hundred grasslands enrolled in the program in four states (ND, SD, MN, and MT) in the northern Great Plains. Results from this and allied studies have been used to generate support for renewal of the CRP in subsequent Farm Bills and to make the Prairie Pothole Region a high-priority area for CRP in the United States. The results from this study also have served to inform private landowners, managers, and policy makers on program improvements for grassland birds related to CRP management (e.g., haying, grazing), grassland patch size, and seeding mixtures (native vs. exot
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota
We examined the relationship between local- (wetland) and landscape-level factors and breeding bird abundances on 1,190 depressional wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota during the breeding seasons in 1995–97. The surveyed wetlands were selected from five wetland classes (alkali, permanent, semipermanent, seasonal, or temporary), two wetland types (natural or restored),AuthorsLawrence D. Igl, Jill A. Shaffer, Douglas H. Johnson, Deborah A. BuhlEffects of haying on breeding birds in CRP grasslands
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary program that is available to agricultural producers to help protect environmentally sensitive or highly erodible land. Management disturbances of CRP grasslands generally are not allowed unless authorized to provide relief to livestock producers during severe drought or a similar natural disaster (i.e., emergency haying and grazing) or to improAuthorsLawrence D. Igl, Douglas H. Johnson