Programs
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The Aldo Leopold
Foundation
P.O.Box 77
Baraboo, WI 53913
608.355.0279
608.356.7309 fax
mail@aldoleopold.org
Birds Bring New Recognition for Leopold Memorial Reserve
It’s no secret that bird populations are declining in Wisconsin, across the Americas, and around the world. The Important Bird Area (IBA) program is playing an important role in responding to this global phenomenon by identifying sites where some of the “motive power” of a landscape—the place’s characteristic birds—can be protected or brought back.
On October 13, 2007, the Aldo Leopold Foundation and other partners came together to celebrate the dedication of the Leopold-Pine Island IBA. Encompassing 11,000 acres, this IBA includes land owned and managed by a federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private landowners. Covering miles of Wisconsin River floodplain and adjacent uplands, the Leopold-Pine Island IBA includes ecosystems from dry sand barrens to lush floodplain forests.
The morning of the dedication was punctuated by the calls of geese and cranes; staging in the area prior to fall migration, the birds were winging their way from their roosting grounds to the morning’s feeding grounds. Thousands of sandhill cranes, a significant percentage of Wisconsin’s population, roost during fall staging at Wisconsin River sandbars and shallows protected by the Phill and Joan Pines, the IBA dedication’s hosts.
“Phill and Joan and other private landowners within this IBA truly are leading by example,” said Yoyi Steele, Wisconsin’s IBA Coordinator. The Pines are preserving and actively restoring 2,000 acres of forest, wetlands, and prairie, home to an array of breeding birds with very different habitat needs.
“Birds don’t care if they’re on public or private land, a wildlife area or a park, or a county forest or someone’s back forty,” Steele explained. “They care about habitats and the resources they need. Conservation will not be as effective if you don’t pay attention to the way birds use landscapes, and try to meet their needs across those landscapes.”
Striving to meet the needs of birds and other wildlife across landscapes is an ecological necessity and a conservation priority. Research has shown that even areas as large as Yellowstone National Park are not large enough to fully meet the needs of wide-ranging resident wildlife, and certainly migratory species depend on healthy habitat beyond the borders of a park or preserve.
Shifting focus from managing small, publicly-owned preserves to partnering with neighbors and beyond was integral to Leopold’s vision of effective conservation. The original IBA proposal focused on the historically significant Leopold Shack and Farm and the diverse and extensive Pine Island property, but the potential for wider collaboration was soon apparent.
The proposal expanded to include the entire Leopold Memorial Reserve, owned and managed by multiple partners, the Pines’ property, the Lower Baraboo River Waterfowl Production Area (a collaboration between the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service), and the Lower Baraboo River Floodplain Forest, including USFWS and private property. As Steele explained, “This IBA has served as a catalyst for something which might not have happened otherwise—the bringing together of all these different landowners and land managers in one place to explore how we all can collaborate to maintain and improve this IBA as a whole while still meeting the needs and goals of our individual properties.”
The IBA at a Glance
The Leopold-Pine Island Important Bird Area covers 11,000 acres, straddling the Wisconsin River in Sauk and Columbia counties west of Portage. It includes five large tracts managed by federal, state, and private landowners, including nonprofit organizations as well as private individuals and families. Located at the southern edge of the “sand counties,” the IBA is within a transitional zone between two ecoregions.
The IBA has a wild character with few human habitations, yet much of it is intensively managed and researched for wildlife conservation. Cooperative research, monitoring and education among various public, and private agencies and landowners have been ongoing in this IBA for decades. It includes large tracts of public land, as well as private lands available for cooperative management.
This IBA harbors most of the breeding-bird species representative of the natural floodplain and adjacent upland of this central Wisconsin landscape—including many declining species such as red-headed woodpecker, bobolink, and meadowlark, which are benefiting from management for savanna and prairie habitats. The “missing” species characteristic of more extensive wetlands, grasslands, barrens and forests stand a good chance of appearing in future years as management proceeds. (From Important Bird Areas of Wisconsin, published by the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative)
Partners:
• Leopold Memorial Reserve - ALF, Sand County Foundation, and private landowners
• Pine Island State Wildlife Area - Wisconsin DNR
• Lower Baraboo River Waterfowl Production Area -US Fish and Wildlife Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
• Phill and Joan Pines tract - managed with cooperation from ALF
• Wisconsin Waterfowl Association
• NRCS
Each IBA must meet several scientific criteria to be approved, so collecting data was an initial focus. In 2005, baseline surveys were conducted to determine which bird species were already using the properties for breeding habitat or during migration. Wisconsin DNR ecologist Mike Mossman conducted surveys during the breeding season, crossing and re-crossing the Leopold Memorial Preserve, Pine Island State Wildlife Area, and the Pines’ property on foot and by canoe.
The parallel transects were spaced a quarter mile apart, and Mossman stopped every quarter mile along each transect to listen and watch for bird activity. Each transect and point was mapped using GPS, meaning the survey can be replicated in the future to monitor changes.
A corps of volunteers coordinated by the Aldo Leopold Foundation also visited the properties during spring migration, the summer breeding season, and fall migration. Eight experienced birders volunteered over 200 hours of their time and recorded 1,600 observations. The Leopold-Pine Island IBA’s surveying protocol has been identified as a possible model for future proposed IBA’s.
The data showed that many species of high conservation concern were using the properties during the breeding season. Blue-winged teal, yellow-billed cuckoo, bald eagle, osprey, woodcock, blue-winged warbler, red-headed woodpecker, willow flycatcher, vesper sparrow, Henslow’s sparrow, and bobolink are among the 108 species considered to be breeding on the IBA. Their habitats included floodplain forest, marsh, open water, oak savanna, and several types of grassland.
Partners met in May of 2007 to discuss the findings of the bird surveys, tour the properties, and discuss possible paths for the future. The discussion is ongoing, but one early result was ALF and the DNR collaborating on a grant application which would fund invasive species control and other management in swamp white oak savannas, a rare native plant community found on both the Leopold Farm and Pine Island.
Kevin McAleese, program director for the Sand County Foundation’s work on the Leopold Memorial Reserve, anticipates that the IBA may serve as a means to connect to more landowners in the area. “I don’t see this as static. The IBA designation is just a beginning, an indication of what’s possible,” McAleese said.
Monitoring and research that demonstrates how birds use the landscape may be an important tool for education and outreach, McAleese noted. “What is it about the Leopold Memorial Reserve that’s special? Wildlife can help tell that story,” he said—“The birds themselves are much more tangible and compelling than a discussion of management goals.”