Practical Conservation

Food safety concerns (like the e. coli – spinach scare) are influencing the amount of natural habitat in some agricultural areas.

From the article ” That translates into ripping out trees and bushes to create sterile buffer zones, up to 100 metres wide, to keep deer and other animals out of “crop blocks.” Not only does this strategy do little to impede the wildlife – which in any case is highly unlikely to carry E. coli – but it also destroys habitat for insects that pollinate plants or eat pests. The buffers also promote erosion and allow pollutants into streams.“

I am all for food safety, but grassland buffers may reduce E. coli in runoff containing cattle feces,  {which are being ‘scorched’ -Sam Riffell}.

How this plays out for wildlife will worth watching.

{Thanks to Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News for putting me on to this}

Conservation Corridor Planning at the Landscape Level (CCPLL) is now part 613 of USDA NRCS National Biology Handbook. Overall, it is an excellent resource aimed at conservation practitioners. It is clearly written in a way that can be understood by laymen without sacrificing scientific content. It is suitable as a supplemental text in advanced undergraduate and perhaps graduate level courses. I have used it as a primary text in my Managing Wildlife in Agricultural Landscapes course.

After a brief introduction, the second chapter of CCPLL reviews the ecological effects of fragmentation. The third chapter describes the different types and functions of corridors. Together, these two chapters review the principles of landscape ecology most relevant to conservation in agricultural landscapes. The fourth chapter moves into ecologically-based design principles, although amount of real empirical verification for varies among them (i.e. some of them are better bets than others). The last two chapters move away from ecology and into area-wide planning process and conservation planning.

A major advantage of this document are the case studies sprinkled generously throughout each chapter. A second major advantage is that it is available free here (very large pdf).

Get Windbreaks for Conservation from USDA National Agroforestry Center. It is an excellent guide to design considerations for conservation windbreaks. You may have to supplement regional woody plant species information to select the appropriate trees & shrubs for your region. They have additional windbreak publications including Windbreaks for Wildlife, How Windbreaks Work, & many other more detailed aspects of windbreak design, establishment and management.

CP33 – Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds – is a relatively new practice available through continuous sign-up Conservation Reserve Program. Specifications for the buffers were designed with northern bobwhite and other grassland birds in mind. A big plus is that economic research suggests these buffers are profitable for the producer, too.

Listen to 4 farmers tell their own story (click image below) about incorporating CP33 Habitat Buffers into their farming operations (courtesy Forestry & Wildlife Research Center at Mississippi State University).