Wyoming's Grasslands: Vital Habitat for Birds

Our analysis shows how range management can better protect declining birds

Posted: 24-Jun-2008; Updated: 03-Feb-2009

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One at-risk grassland bird: McCown's longspur. Photo: Seth Gallagher/Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.

Learn more

• 2008 Heterogeneity Workshop -
  New Approaches to Managing Semi-arid Grasslands: Promoting Habitat Diversity While Supporting Livestock Production
• Download full report - Are Wyoming Range Practices Working at Cross-purposes with Wildlife Habitat Goals? [PDF]
• Safer Fencing Can Help Save Western Birds: An inexpensive opportunity exists to reduce the hazard to the greater sage grouse and lesser prairie chicken from wire fencing

Wyoming has vast tracts of untilled native grasslands — more than 8 million acres. These areas are ideal habitat for grassland bird species such as the Mountain Plover and the Bobolink.

The state’s rangeland has enormous potential to revive dwindling populations of grassland birds, whose numbers have decreased across the U.S. for the last 30 years.

Our new report [PDF] shows how Wyoming's grasslands, mostly in private hands and used for livestock grazing, can be well managed to help wildlife while keeping agricultural operations productive.

That report sparked an October 2008 workshop, organized by EDF, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory on the importance of habitat diversity for grassland birds and new approaches to achieve its benefits through livestock management. Scientists, wildlife biologists and other scientists met in Cheyenne, Wyoming for two days of discussions on heterogeneity-promoting management and how to incorporate it into policy so that it is more broadly employed in the West.

NRCS conservation funding can play a key role in recovering birds

Working closely with private ranchers is crucial. The largest funding source for assisting private landowners for conservation on rangelands is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  NRCS works with private landowners to implement Farm Bill programs that support voluntary conservation practices and management on their land.

By properly aligning its practices with the needs of declining grassland birds, NRCS can play a vital role in their recovery. 

Incentive programs can improve bird habitat

Environmental Defense Fund staff evaluated NRCS's planning and spending practices for its private lands incentive programs in Wyoming between 2003 and 2007. Our findings indicate that NRCS has done much to incorporate basic grassland bird priorities into its state-level planning.

But there are still many opportunities for improvement.  See full analysis [PDF] for our findings and key recommendations for harmonizing range management and wildfire goals.

A few examples of improvements that NRCS programs can make to help birds are highlighted below.

• Use fire as an essential tool. Suppressing grass fires affects a region's ecology to the detriment of bird habitat. Patch burning is a way to increase biodiversity and keep grasslands healthy.
• Implement practices the promote vegetation heterogeneity to create habitat for grassland birds and other wildlife.  Maintaining variety in grassland structure and plant species composition is critical to recovering the full spectrum of grassland birds. Different birds' habitat varies from short grasses (e.g. mountain plover) to tall grasses and shrubland (e.g. grasshopper sparrow). 
• Reduce the use of cross-fencing and water developments that can have a direct lethal impact on birds and can fragment habitat.

Wyoming's grasslands represent one of the best hopes for grassland bird habitat and preservation. Ensuring that the twin rangeland and wildlife goals of NRCS work in concert can double the benefits of limited funding resources.

Download full report: Are Wyoming Range Practices Working at Cross-purposes with Wildlife Habitat Goals? [PDF]