[obol] Re: Management of Hayfields for Grassland Birds
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2015 00:17:03 -0800
Hi Lillian and All,
The recommendations from Massachusetts Audubon are generally good ones.
In fact Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) has a very good
publication that recommends many of these same practices, in their
"Landowner Guide to Grassland Bird Conservation" which you can find via
a link on this page.
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/conservationstrategy/grassland_birds.asp
However Willamette Valley agriculture -- and the grass seed industry
specifically -- has some unique aspects that make some of these
practices unlikely to be implemented on a voluntary basis by farmers,
without incentives.
A big issue for grass-seed farmers is "shattering" (having the seeds
fall out during harvest). Unlike most cereal grains which have been
selectively bred for millennia for traits that make them easy to
harvest, the main varieties of grass grown for seed are somewhat
fragile. The swathers that are used to cut the standing grass are often
fitted with custom, double cutting blades in order to minimize shaking
of the grass as it's being cut, and special pickup-up heads to convey
the grass as gently as possible toward the back of the machine to form
the windrow.
You can imagine why it would be difficult to convince farmers to fit
their machines with "flushing bars," as these would result in lost
income by basically flailing the grass before it even goes into a
windrow. Swathing and combining are also often done at night when the
humidity is higher, as this helps to reduce seed losses. And the harvest
takes place in a fairly narrow window of time when conditions are
suitable -- usually in the last week or two of June. Sometimes unusual
weather can push the harvest into the second week of July (as is
recommended to reduce impacts on grassland birds), but the same weather
conditions (unseasonably cool, wet weather) also tend to be bad for
nestling survival.
As bad as this sounds, the grass-seed industry is more favorable to
Streaked Horned Larks than most of the other major crops. Wheat and most
row crops are unsuitable. Larks may nest in Christmas tree farms,
hazelnut orchards, and vineyards in the very early stages of
establishment if the landscape is sufficiently open, but once these are
established they become unsuitable -- and may even make adjacent fields
unsuitable by fragmenting the open landscape. The same goes for
commercial nurseries. So grass-seed farms, even if not ideal, are
important as habitat. Some of the more minor crops in the valley (for
example, clover seed production which can be seen along Livermore Rd. in
the area of recent OBOL reports) could also be important.
The October 2014 USFWS listing decision that designated the Streaked
Horned Lark as a federally Threatened species recognized that Willamette
Valley grass seed fields are currently functioning as THE main habitat
for this species. Even at sites that are nominally protected (the valley
NWRs and certain airports) and host significant nesting populations,
it's likely that substantial numbers of larks are nesting in the
surrounding grass fields. Unfortunately, the same decision provided
neither carrot nor stick to encourage lark-friendly practices on those
lands.
Having lived for 10 years on a Willamette Valley grass-seed farm, after
spending most of my first 18 years in farming, I can see the farmers'
point of view. I've talked to several who are sympathetic to larks, and
could be interested in participating in programs that would provide
better nesting habitat (for example, planting patterns that would leave
bare patches in fields for larks to use), but they're not going to do
that without some incentives to compensate for what would be a loss of
income. I've heard some rumors that some positive incentive programs
(carrots) *might* be in the works, but let's just say I'll believe it
when I see it.
There won't be any negative incentives (sticks), since the way that the
listing was formulated gives a blanket exemption to anything that might
be regarded as "normal agricultural practice" -- even if that includes
effectively permanent conversion of Streaked Horned Lark nesting habitat
to vineyards. Regrading and drainage to eliminate wet spots in fields
(which formerly provided nesting sanctuaries -- also good because
grass-seed swather operators generally "lift up" their cutting heads in
these areas to avoid weed seeds) mean that over time, even grass-seed
fields that used to host Horned Larks will become less suitable.
There is nothing in the listing decision to discourage these
modifications. It's called a "section (d) exemption" in the lingo of the
Endangered Species Act.
I currently don't see any way for the situation to improve, unless and
until there is documentation of the ways in which the realities of
Willamette Valley agriculture are diverging from the assumptions that
the USFWS made in their listing decision. Basically they assumed that
the grass-seed industry will continue to apply basically the same
practices on the same acreage, for the foreseeable future. Never mind
that the grass-seed industry is a 30-year flash in the pan.
Side story: 10 years ago while doing the Antone CBC in eastern Oregon, I
wound up talking to a ranch hand by the name of Ken Rasch who initially
came out to confront us, but once we got to talking, it turned out that
we both knew some of the same people in the Willamette Valley. But the
same people whom I knew as grass-seed farmers, he knew as the wheat
farmers that he used to work for. Anyway the encounter ended well,
helped in larger part by a Northern Pygmy-Owl that flew in while we were
talking. I'd been tooting just before Ken pulled up in his 2-ton flatbed
truck. When he asked me what sort of birds we were finding, I mentioned
a Northern Pygmy-Owl that I'd seen half a mile up the road. Ken
responded, "Don't think I've ever seen one of those," and just at that
moment I saw the owl sitting on a fencepost about 20 feet behind him,
so I said, "It looked pretty much like that one right behind you." Well
he was impressed and from that time on, we were welcome as birders along
that road. Even if Ken wasn't around, all I had to do was mention his
name, and we were in the door.
The moral of the story for the present topic is that Ken wasn't that old
(maybe in his late 30s or early 40s, about the same age or a bit younger
than me at the time), but his memory of the Willamette Valley was as a
wheat-farming region, before grass seed took over. That's how short-term
the current paradigm is. Things will change again, which is normal for
agriculture in this country. Already wheat is making a comeback as
grass-seed prices have slumped, and there is a clear shift to vineyards,
hazelnut orchards, and nursery operations. Unfortunately the dynamics of
the ag industry aren't taken into account in the Streaked Horned Lark
listing decision. So it's up to us birders to document what's happening,
and push for stronger protections or -- much better yet -- positive
incentives for farmers to help preserve these birds.
I don't know any farmers who feel good about mowing over bird nests, and
most will go out of their way if you can tell them where one is. I've
seen them leave grass standing around Wild Turkey nests when they manage
to spot them from the swather. But the reality is that they can't avoid
every Savannah Sparrow nest out there, and it's VERY tough to locate
Horned Lark nests. If there were some positive financial incentives for
farmers, I think a lot of them would be interested in protecting
Streaked Horned Larks.
This is why I see it as important to document the realities of
agricultural landscapes as habitat for these threatened/endangered
grassland species. There will be more opportunities for that in the
coming season; let me know if you're interested.
Good birding,
Joel
P.S. About that field on the north side of Coville Rd., the good news is
that all of that field is now in a NRCS conservation easement. USFWS is
aware that larks are nesting out there, and that should be part of the
management plan.
On Thu, 2015-03-05 at 01:06 -0500, obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 23:12:42 -0800
> From: Lillian <lillian.e@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [obol] Management of Hayfields for Grassland Birds
>
> Hello Birders,
> After my previous email I did a little searching to see what I could
> learn about farming practices and ground nesting birds... Below are
> some good recommendations from the Massachusetts Audubon. I don't know
> if anything like it exists for Oregon farmers, but maybe it should...
>
>
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