Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Jill Shaffer

Jill Shaffer is an Ecologist with the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in Jamestown, North Dakota. 

Her research focus broadly encompasses grassland bird ecology and conservation.  She has evaluated the behavioral impacts of wind facilities on grassland birds and devised a method to quantify that impact for the purposes of offsetting the impact.  She has supervised numerous field crews throughout the northern Great Plains in the process of investigating the impact of land use change and landscape composition on grassland and wetland birds. She has spearheaded a twenty-year effort to compile, synthesize, and publish information on the effects of rangeland practices and energy-extraction activities on grassland birds.​​​​

Professional Experience

  • 1999-present; Ecologist, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, North Dakota

  • 1996-1999; Biological Science Technician, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, North Dakota

Education and Certifications

  • M.S. (1996) Zoology, University of Arkansas

  • B.S. (1993) Biology, University of Wisconsin

Science and Products

Filter Total Items: 97

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida)

Keys to Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) management include providing grasslands with a shrub or forb component or shrub-dominated edge habitat, which includes dense grass and moderately high litter cover, and avoiding disturbances that completely eliminate woody vegetation. Clay-colored Sparrows have been reported to use habitats with 20–186 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 3–50
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Understanding the Avian-Impact Offset Method—A tutorial

Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland and wetland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic disturbances such as energy development and road construction. Energy-extraction and -generation facilities continue to proliferate across the natural landscapes of the United States, yet mitigation tools
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea)

Keys to Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) management include providing areas of short, sparse vegetation and maintaining populations of prey species and of burrowing mammals to ensure availability of burrows as nest sites. In particular, the conservation of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) and Richardson’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii) colonies is vital to the
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Limited land base and competing land uses force societal tradeoffs when siting energy development

As human populations grow, decisions regarding use of the world's finite land base become increasingly complex. We adopted a land use–conflict scenario involving renewable energy to illustrate one potential cause of these conflicts and resulting tradeoff decisions. Renewable energy industries wishing to expand operations in the United States are limited by multijurisdictional regulations in findin
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus)

The keys to Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) management are maintaining expansive grasslands; preventing populations of Greater Prairie-Chickens from becoming small and isolated; managing grasslands to maintain proper grassland height, density, and vigor; and reducing woody plant invasion and excessive litter buildup. Within these grasslands, areas should contain short herbace
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)

The key to Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) management is providing large grasslands and wetlands, particularly those that can support high densities of voles (Microtus species). Short-eared Owls have been reported to use habitats with 30–90 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 7–47 cm visual obstruction reading, 31–85 percent grass cover, 8–26 percent forb cover, less than 18 percent shrub
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)

The key to Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) management is providing large areas of contiguous grassland of intermediate height with moderately deep litter and low shrub density. Grasshopper Sparrows have been reported to use habitats with 8–166 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 4–80 cm visual obstruction reading, 12–95 percent grass cover, 4–40 percent forb cover, less than 35
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)

Keys to Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) management include providing open grasslands with sparse-to-moderate herbaceous and litter cover and a woody component and allowing occasional burning or moderate grazing. Lark Sparrows have been reported to use habitats with 10–63 centimeters (cm) average vegetation height, 10–54 percent grass cover, 9–25 percent forb cover, 4–18 percent shrub cover, 16
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Migrating whooping cranes avoid wind-energy infrastructure when selecting stopover habitat

Electricity generation from renewable-energy sources has increased dramatically worldwide in recent decades. Risks associated with wind-energy infrastructure are not well understood for endangered whooping cranes or other vulnerable crane populations. From 2010 to 2016, we monitored 57 whooping cranes with remote-telemetry devices in the United States Great Plains to determine potential changes in
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences

Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates.
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Improving the ability to include freshwater wetland plants in process-based models

Considerable effort and resources have been placed into conservation programs designed to reduce or alleviate negative environmental effects of crop production and into evaluation of the benefits of these programs. Wetlands are an important source of ecosystem services, but modeling wetland plants is an emerging science. To date, wetland plant growth has not been explicitly accounted for in ecosys
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri breweri)

Keys to Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri breweri) management include maintaining extensive, unfragmented patches of suitable breeding habitat; reducing conifer cover and height; preventing the invasion of conifers and nonnative plants, especially cheatgrass (downy brome [Bromus tectorum]); minimizing disturbance to soil; and restricting the use of pesticides and herbicides during the breeding se
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Dechant, J. A. 2001. Range expansion of Pileated Woodpecker in North Dakota. Prairie Naturalist 33:163-182.
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/1001692
Winter, M., S. E. Hawks, J. A. Shaffer, and D. H. Johnson. 2003. Guidelines for finding nests of passerine birds in tallgrass prairie. Prairie Naturalist 35:197-211.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=usgsnpwrc.
Shaffer, J. A., L. D. Igl, and F. VanHove. 2003. Historical and recent records and first nest records of Henslow’s Sparrow in North Dakota. Prairie Naturalist 35:81-94.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc/159/.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

link
Aerial View of the Tatanka Wind Energy Farm

Tools for the Mitigation of Habitat-Based Impacts to Birds

Compensatory mitigation is applied in grassland and wetland ecosystems to offset environmental damage from disturbances such as energy development. Energy facilities continue to proliferate across the United States, yet implementation of mitigation tools to ameliorate habitat loss or behavioural effects on wildlife is rare. NPWRC scientists conducted a 10-year Before-After, Control-Impact (BACI)...
By
Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
link

Tools for the Mitigation of Habitat-Based Impacts to Birds

Compensatory mitigation is applied in grassland and wetland ecosystems to offset environmental damage from disturbances such as energy development. Energy facilities continue to proliferate across the United States, yet implementation of mitigation tools to ameliorate habitat loss or behavioural effects on wildlife is rare. NPWRC scientists conducted a 10-year Before-After, Control-Impact (BACI)...
Learn More
link
Wind turbine, Minnesota

Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts

The avian-impact offset method (AIOM) quantifies the amount of habitat needed to provide equivalent biological value for birds displaced by energy and transportation infrastructure. The AIOM can be applied in situations where avian displacement (i.e., behavioral avoidance) requires compensatory mitigation. The AIOM is based on the ability to define five metrics: impact distance, impact area, pre...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
link

Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts

The avian-impact offset method (AIOM) quantifies the amount of habitat needed to provide equivalent biological value for birds displaced by energy and transportation infrastructure. The AIOM can be applied in situations where avian displacement (i.e., behavioral avoidance) requires compensatory mitigation. The AIOM is based on the ability to define five metrics: impact distance, impact area, pre...
Learn More
link
Photo of sharp-tailed grouse

Impacts of wind-turbine energy complexes on northern prairie grouse

Wind-energy development in the northern Great Plains primarily occurs along the Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Plateau in North Dakota and South Dakota. While these areas rank high in wind-energy potential they also contain important breeding habitat for sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chickens. The impact of these wind-energy developments on prairie grouse populations and trends in...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
link

Impacts of wind-turbine energy complexes on northern prairie grouse

Wind-energy development in the northern Great Plains primarily occurs along the Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Plateau in North Dakota and South Dakota. While these areas rank high in wind-energy potential they also contain important breeding habitat for sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chickens. The impact of these wind-energy developments on prairie grouse populations and trends in...
Learn More
link
A sparrow in the grass

The effects of management practices on grassland birds

With support from the U.S. Prairie Pothole Joint Venture (PPJV), the U.S. Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy, Northern Prairie is synthesizing literature on the effects of management practices on grassland bird species. The need for these syntheses was identified by the PPJV, a part of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, in support of its objective to stabilize or increase...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
link

The effects of management practices on grassland birds

With support from the U.S. Prairie Pothole Joint Venture (PPJV), the U.S. Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy, Northern Prairie is synthesizing literature on the effects of management practices on grassland bird species. The need for these syntheses was identified by the PPJV, a part of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, in support of its objective to stabilize or increase...
Learn More

10-year (2003-2012) bird and vegetation data collected at wind facilities in North Dakota and South Dakota

This data release contains eight datasets that represent the entirety of the data collected for a study that examined breeding-bird densities in native mixed-grass prairie from 2003 to 2012 at and adjacent to wind facilities in North Dakota and South Dakota, USA. Data were collected to determine breeding-bird density per 100 hectares (ha) by distance bands from turbines and by excluding habitat th
By
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Effects of wind-energy facilities on breeding grassland bird distributions - data release

This data release contains breeding-bird densities in native mixed-grass prairie collected from 2003 to 2012 at and adjacent to wind farms in North and South Dakota, USA, for one year prior to turbine construction and several years post-construction. One dataset contains breeding-bird densities per 100 ha by distance from turbines for categories of 0-100 m, 100-200 m, 200-300 m, and greater than 3
By
Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Modeling effects of crop production, energy development and conservation-grassland loss on avian habitat: dataset of BBS data, ND, with habitat rankings

This dataset is North American Breeding Bird Survey bird-count data for the routes and stops in North Dakota, USA, in which ten mixed-grass-prairie-endemic species occurred, as well as the mean habitat-quality ranking scores derived from applying the Habitat Quality Module of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) to spatial layers for landuse/landcover from the Nati
By
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota dataset

The data set consists of data collected in 1995, 1996, and 1997 in wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota and South Dakota. The data were summarized and used in the analysis for a U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report entitled: The influence of local- and landscape-level factors on wetland breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota. The data consist of
By
Species Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Aerial View of the Tatanka Wind Energy Farm
link
link

USGS Friday's Findings - February 24th 2023

Title: No More Tilting at Windmills: A Quantitative Method for Evaluating Development Impacts

Speaker: Jill Shaffer, Ecologist, Northern Prairie...

Read Article
link

Breeding Bird Distribution Affected by Wind Turbines in the Dakotas

New wind energy facilities placed in prime wildlife habitat in North and South Dakota can influence the distribution of several species of grassland...
Read Article

Science and Products