Playas are a major source of recharge to the Ogallala Aquifer, contributing up to 95 percent of inflow of water to the aquifer and improving the quality of that water. For those who may have doubts, it was confirmed by 14 playa experts who participated in Playa Lakes Joint Venture’s Playa Recharge Summit last November. [...]
This year, Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) joined a region-wide bird monitoring effort. The program, called Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR), is a large partnership-driven program that uses state-of-the-art approaches for the entire process, from the sampling design to how it reports results. The implementation of this program within the Joint Venture region [...]
For several years Kirsten Luke and Tim Jones have used the research efforts by the Black Duck Joint Venture (BDJV), Ducks Unlimited (DU), state agencies, and academic partners to understand the habitat use, energy budget, and energetic carrying capacity for American Black Ducks wintering in the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture. Now ACJV staff and partners [...]
Bird conservation partners in the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV) are now closer to having a full complement of Bird Conservation Region (BCR) Plans that cover our entire geographic area. Currently, BCR plans exist for the Atlantic Northern Forest (14), Lower Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Plain (13), New England/Mid-Atlantic Coast (30), Piedmont (29), and the eastern [...]
Researchers from the University of Maine Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology and the USGS Cooperative Wildlife Research Units at the University of Maine and the West Virginia University recently finished the field work on an investigation of bird distributions in the Northern Forest region of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The Northeast Region [...]
The Ohio Division of Natural Resources has partnered with the Ohio Bird Conservation Initiative (OBCI) and the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture in developing a video series focused on private landowners who have managed their forests to improve avian habitat. The goal is to document the positive changes to bird communities following management activities. Production of the [...]
Studies conducted by Fabiola Rodriguez and Jeff Larkin of Indiana University of Pennsylvania identified Wood Thrush as one of the most abundant migratory birds in remnant dry forest patches of Honduras. This is of particular interest as Wood Thrush are usually associated with moister conditions. The study was part of a project to evaluate the [...]
In 2015, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) permanently protected, through purchase, 198 acres in Mitchell and Avery County, North Carolina, a part of our Highlands of Roan program. These two tracts will provide habitat for many priority forest birds including Wood Thrush, Canada Warbler, and Saw-whet Owl. They will also provide more than 30 [...]
On October 25, 2015, after 10 years of planning and $18 million dollars raised, partners breached a levee along the north edge of San Francisco Bay at Sears Point Ranch, allowing salt water to fill a recently constructed 1,000-acre tidal marsh basin for the first time in over a century.
The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture continues to make steady progress in improving wetland habitat in south-central Nebraska, thanks in part to four grants from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, which total over a half million dollars for 2015.