A Conservation Crisis

 

A break from our regularly scheduled messages for some discussion on the importance of our research.

 The headlines were all over social media this weekend—the abundance of the world’s wildlife has declined by 58% over the past four decades (1970-2012). The prediction is that by 2020, we will have lost two-thirds of our wildlife. If this sounds like a doomsday scenario, it is, at least for our wildlife.

And while these headlines were shocking to many, to conservation biologists this is old (but depressing) news. What was interesting about this headline, for me, was that people were paying attention to it.

Take grassland birds for instance. Scientists have been publishing on the dire situation facing grassland birds for decades. Less than 1% of the original expanse of tallgrass prairie remains (Schwartz, 1997). Let that sink in. Less than 1%! The tallgrass prairie habitat, as it originally was, is extinct. Imagine what that does to the grassland birds that require grassland habitats to breed and survive. Here are some of the mostly unread scientific headlines:

“Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands” (Wright and Wimberly, 2013)

“North American Grassland Birds: An Unfolding Conservation Crisis?” (Brennan and Kuvlesky, 2005)

“Avoidance of unconventional oil wells and roads exacerbates habitat loss for grassland birds in the North American Great Plains” (Thomson et al. 2015)

 “Remaining large grasslands may not be sufficient to prevent grassland bird declines” (With et al., 2008)

At least 75% of grassland birds are declining (Sauer et al. 2013), and grassland birds have experienced “steeper, more consistent, and more geographically widespread declines than any other behavioral or ecological guild” (Knopf 1994).

So yes, grassland birds are in trouble, but if so little habitat remains, why haven’t grassland birds gone extinct already?

The answer to this question is complex, partially because of time delays in response to habitat loss (for example, populations might not immediately respond to habitat loss). However, the presence of “secondary grasslands” may be helping grassland birds persist (compare to “secondary forests”). These secondary grasslands are found when land is returned to a grassland state of some kind, usually for a productive purpose like pasture or haying. Complicating restoration or management efforts, they exist mostly on private lands, and are often planted with non-native grasses that are thought to be more economically productive by some. 

This brings us to the focus of our research, and why we are asking for your support for our project: we are trying to find out how these private land grasslands can be used to support the persistence of these imperiled grassland birds.

Many big-picture questions remain: can people, productivity, and grassland birds coexist? How willing are private landowners to change their behavior to benefit birds? Can these new, secondary grasslands planted with non-native grasses support grassland bird biodiversity?

We hope to begin to address these critical questions with our project. So if you were upset by the wildlife conservation headlines this weekend too, please consider a donation to our cause.

Thank you,

Jaime, Jane, and the birds