Bird Conservation Pilot Program Underway

Conserved Farm in the Catawba Valley

The New River Land Trust is one of 14 awardees of the Cornell Land Trust Grant for 2023. The grant helps land trusts with bird conservation efforts.

With the funding, we’re creating a pilot program in the Catawba Valley to engage local landowners and birders in grassland bird conservation on working farms. The valley includes 28 permanently protected conservation easements totaling over 10,000 acres.

The number of grassland species of birds such as the Eastern Meodowlark, the Grasshopper Sparrow and the Northern Bobwhite have been on the decline due, in part, to habitat loss.

In partnership with the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture, NRLT will coordinate bird surveys on two large farm properties with grazing cattle and recent stream restoration projects to understand what bird species are present on the farms at certain times of year, such as during breeding season.

In addition, we’ll integrate bird-specific data sets into our GIS-based conservation prioritization methodology. Adding this data will allow us to assess a property’s potential for bird conservation and future habitat restoration and improvement. 

We’ll also conduct landowner interviews in the area and research pre-existing conservation programs, then develop outreach material with community and academic partners to approach future landowners about incorporating bird conservation into their property management. 

The long-term goal of this project is to enable landowners to both increase and improve habitat for declining populations of grassland birds.