News about grassland birds

Photo from Donald Metzer courtesy of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

A recent article in Science News magazine highlights a report on the state of birds released March 19 by American Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The report says that "nearly a third of the United States’ 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline". Here is the New York Times piece on the same "Stat of the Birds" report. And here is the Nature Conservancy's blog on the subject: "U.S. State of the Birds: A Report Whose Time Has Come."

Meanwhile, from Kansas's famous tallgrass region, the Flint Hills, there have been several articles recently about three grassland bird species disappering. Here is one.

One interesting approach to grassland conservation in the United States I have been hearing about lately is the possibility of a "sodsaver" provision being adopted by local state legislatures. It was put in a federal farm bill but made more less ineffective by allowing prairie Governors to opt out. Here is a link to a Ducks Unlimited page explaining the need for sodsaver provisions. And here is a blog posting from a blog called “Eat More Cookies” (I was eating two peanut butter cookies as I read it—I swear). Scroll down to find the post on sodsaver legislation.