Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative 2015 Conference “To Kill a Mockingbird” Would Be to Destroy the Innocence of Nature Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative Newsletter Working together to conserve bird populations and their habitats AUGUST 2015 VOLUME 11 “e tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination it- self.” — William Blake G reetings! This year, our 13th Annual MoBCI Conference theme is “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a look at the variety of threats and challenges facing bird management in Missouri and else- where. For those of us who love watching birds, manage bird populations and their habitats, and occasionally harvest birds for food, killing a mockingbird would be unconscionable! Mocking- birds are federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; in Arkansas (where I am from), Gene Gardner, Chair MoBCI Steering Committee the mockingbird is the state bird and therefore protected by special laws. Although we might tend to take this statement quite literally to mean killing a bird, this phrase actually has a deeper meaning. Perhaps the title of Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird might come to your mind – or you might have seen the 1962 film version. You’ll have to read more below to find out where I am going with this. First, it has been my pleasure to serve as the Chair for the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative (MoBCI) for another year. Our flock of conservation partners has grown from the original 28 organizations in 2003 to now more than 72 organizations, all dedicated to working together to achieve what we call “all-bird con- INSIDE THIS ISSUE: MoBCI 2015 Conference Gene Gardner ................................................. 1 Hi Lonesome Master Naturalists Assist with Barn Owl Boxes Marge Lumpe.................................................. 4 Monarch Conservation Efforts in Missouri off to a Strong Collaborative Beginning USF&W Newsroom ........................................... 5 MoBCI Helps National Wild Turkey Federation: Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. John Burk ...................................................... 6 Habitat Restoration at Stillwell Prairie Carol Davit .................................................... 10 We Care About Birds and Their Habitats Gene Gardner ................................................ 12 MoBCI Member Organizations ......................... 13
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“To Kill a Mockingbird” Would Be to Destroy the Innocence of Nature
Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative NewsletterWorking together to conserve bird populations and their habitats
AUGUST 2015 VolUMe 11
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination it-self.” — William Blake
G reetings! This year, our 13th Annual MoBCI
Conference theme is “To Kill a Mockingbird,”
a look at the variety of threats and challenges
facing bird management in Missouri and else-
where. For those of us who love watching birds,
manage bird populations and their habitats,
and occasionally harvest birds for food, killing a
Hi lonesome Master Naturalists Assist with Barn owl Boxesby Marge LumpeMissouri Master Naturalists, Hi Lonesome Chapter
A number of grassland bird species are in serious decline, including Eastern meadow-
larks, bobolinks and Henslow’s sparrows. One you might not think of is the barn owl. I had never seen a barn owl in Benton County until a group of birders came across a pile of feathers in a fencerow across from Hi Lonesome Prairie Con-servation Area. To be fair to the owls, I am rarely out late at night; there may be more of them than I know.
Several years ago, Steve Cooper, Land Man-ager for the Hi Lonesome CA travelled to Illinois to see how land managers there were managing for greater prairie chickens. During a fieldtrip, he noticed some odd looking structures on the land-scape. They turned out to be barn owl nest boxes, part of the statewide barn owl recovery effort.
In Illinois prior to 2010, the barn owl was in serious decline and listed as state endangered. By 2014, following a concerted effort to install barn owl nest boxes throughout the bird’s range, Illinois was considering reclassifying the status to threatened. Having witnessed the success of nest boxes in Illinois, several members of the Missouri Recovery Team saw an opportunity to help barn owls in our state. The Missouri Depart-ment of Conservation (MDC) quickly purchased commercially available nesting boxes and made plans to install them on several grassland units.
The nest box project presented an opportu-nity to engage the public, and MDC approached the Hi Lonesome Chapter of Missouri Master Naturalists to gain assistance in erecting and monitoring the nest boxes. The timing of this project was perfect for the recent graduates of the spring Master Naturalist class, who require a capstone project in order to be certified.
MDC employees provided materials and guidance to eight members of the chapter who
met on a nice Saturday morning to erect nest-ing boxes on three conservation areas in Benton County: Hi Lonesome, Mora, and Drovers Prairie.
Participants in the barn owl nest box project included Gerald and Ruth Schlomer, Roxanne Stockdall, Tami Courtney, Andrea Goldstrom, Heather Hughes, Rita Brown, Marge Lumpe, Terry Shumate (MDC) and Steve Cooper (MDC). To date, there are 9 barn owl nest boxes installed on 7 grassland conservation areas.
Since the boxes have been erected, chapter members have developed monitoring protocols and reporting methods. The results of our nest box monitoring as of June 30, 2015 are: 4 barn owl chicks and between 3–6 American kestrel chicks. One barn owl nest box has 3 unhatched eggs. The barn owl nest box project has been rewarding and interesting for both MDC and the Hi Lonesome
Chapter of the Master Naturalists.
Includes information taken from an article in the Missouri Department of Conservation Jan/Feb 2015 newsletter.
Installation of Barn Owl boxes on Mora Conservation Area, July 26, 2014. The participants are members of the Hi Lonesome Chapter of Missouri Master Naturalists along with personnel from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Working Together to Conserve and Restore Bird Populations and Their Habitats 5
US Fish and Wildlife Service Newsroom
T ake a city and mayor devoted to monarchs, add a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, support from dedicated partners and the help of enthusiastic preschoolers, and you have the recipe for bringing monarchs back, one patch at a time. On June 1, 2015, US Fish and Wildlife Service Midwest Regional Director Tom Melius and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay joined conservation partners from the Missouri Depart-ment of Natural Resources, St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Botanical Garden to announce the Ser-vice’s $80,000 grant in support of the St. Louis Milkweeds for Monarchs program.
The Service grant, through its role with the Eastern Tallgrass Prairie and Big Rivers Landscape Conservation Cooperative is providing $80,000 to help expand and monitor St. Louis’s Milkweeds for Monarchs program. Milkweeds for Monarchs is a citywide initiative to help connect people and urban nature by increasing monarch butterfly habitat and helping people enjoy monarchs in neighborhood parks and spaces. St. Louis Mayor Slay has committed that the city will plant 50 monarch gardens, and challenged the community to plant an additional 200 monarch gardens to commemorate the city’s 250th birthday year.
The grant will be used to expand the Milk-weeds for Monarchs program and evaluate 37 existing monarch and pollinator habitats to as-sess biological and socioeconomic factors that influence habitat design, such as vegetation com-position, pollinator attraction and community acceptance. This research will help inform future site-level strategies for improving monarch habi-tat across North America.
In time, the St. Louis Milkweeds for Monarchs program will be one critical piece of a larger urban monarch initiative along the Interstate 35 corridor that supports the biological needs of mi-grating monarchs, and benefits the people who live, work and recreate there.
Refuges in the Service’s Midwest Region, in-cluding Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge near
St. Louis, as well as Big Muddy, Middle Missis-sippi River and Great River and Clarence Cannon, are playing a critical role in that effort. The staff at Two Rivers Refuge is actively involved with the city in the Milkweeds for Monarchs program and other pollinator-friendly projects in the St. Louis area. The goal is to restore and enhance more than 50,000 acres of monarch habitat on federal and private lands across the Midwest.
“These efforts to help the monarch are part of a continental initiative to conserve butterflies, bees and other pollinators that are so critical to our own lives and livelihoods. Just a couple of weeks ago, President Obama announced his strategy to conserve pollinators and called on citizens to become aware of the issue, to restore habitat and to nurture nectar-producing plants for pollinators. His goal is 225 million monarchs
by 2020,” Regional Director Melius said.
For more information about the Milkweeds for Monarchs program visit: <www.stlouis-mo.gov/monarchs>.
Monarch Conservation efforts in Missouri off to a Strong Collaborative Beginning
Missouri is home to over 12 species of native milkweeds, including butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), pictured above. Conservation of wild populations in our natural landscapes remains a priority to public and private land managers in Missouri.
We Care About Birds and Their Habitats!by Gene GardnerMissouri Bird Conservation Initiative, Chair
T he Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative (MoBCI) is a partnership of organizations that
“get excited about birds!” We are an organization of organizations, each caring about bird conser-vation, with some having formal legal responsi-bilities for the welfare of birds and their native habitats. The 72 partner organizations of MoBCI are a diverse group of conservation-minded bird watchers, hunters, business owners, academi-cians, state and federal professionals, and citizens committed to working together to sustain healthy habitats for the benefit of resident and migrant birds in Missouri and for the enjoyment and eco-nomic benefit of Missouri citizens.
The MoBCI was formally established August 16, 2003 following the written commitment of 28 organizations to unite in the pursuit of integrat-ed all-bird conservation. A series of communica-tion and consensus building meetings preceded MoBCI’s official formation. MoBCI members realize that our respective organizational in-terests in birds are varied, but also that these diverse interests, if unified, represent a powerful force of action and voice on behalf of birds and their habitats. Further, member organizations recognize that much more can be accomplished if we jointly engage in what are truly common goals. Moreover, communication and coopera-tion promote an understanding of our respective individual and organizational interests in birds. Accompanying that understanding is apprecia-tion for the motivations of others.
MoBCI is Missouri’s “step down” of the hemispheric and international integrated bird conservation partnership–the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The NABCI vision is one where “Populations and habitats of North America’s birds are protected, restored, and enhanced through coordinated efforts at international, national, regional, state, and local
Members of the Columbia Audubon Society go birding at Ozark Caverns, Lake of the Ozarks State Park, as part of an in-kind match for a MoBCI grant for ecosystem restoration. Partnerships such as that between MoDNR and CAS are vital to the longevity and sustainability of the MoBCI Grants program.
levels, guided by sound science and effective management.” Like the NABCI, the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative is about conserving birds across geopolitical boundaries, across taxonomic groups, and across landscapes. MoBCI is a part-nership designed for delivery of conservation at the state and local levels. Annually, Missouri Governor’s Proclamations celebrate International Migratory Bird Day and the highly successful MoBCI partnership. A MoBCI Foundation has been formed to even further advance bird con-servation efforts in Missouri into the future.
So successful is this partnership that MoBCI received a national award, entitled “2008 Out-standing Contributions to Bird Conservation,” from the NABCI/Association of Joint Venture Management Boards. MoBCI continues to dem-onstrate how local/state level bird conservation partnerships can be effective and transform opportunities into on-the-ground accomplish-ments. Perhaps most importantly, MoBCI has cre-ated a forum for diverse bird interests to know and better appreciate one another, creating an atmosphere and attitude that so much more can be achieved for bird conservation when working
as a team.
Working Together to Conserve and Restore Bird Populations and Their Habitats 13
MoBCI Member organizations
A s of March 2015, the following 72 organiza-
tions have signed a Memorandum of Agree-
ment to participate in the Missouri Bird Conser-
vation Initiative:
Academy of Science of St. LouisAmerican Bird Conservancy/Central Hardwoods
Joint VentureAudubon MissouriAudubon Society of MissouriAudubon Society:
Chariton Valley Chapter•Columbia Chapter•Grand River Chapter•Greater Kansas City Chapter, Burroughs •Audubon SocietyGreater Ozarks Chapter•Midland Empire Chapter•River Bluffs Chapter•St. Louis Chapter•
Avian Conservation AllianceBellefontaine Cemetery & ArboretumCity of Des Peres Parks & Recreation DepartmentClay County Dept. of Parks, Recreation & Historic
SitesColdwater Outing and Game PreserveConservation Federation of MissouriDucks UnlimitedEleven Point River ConservancyForest Park ForeverForrest Keeling NurseryGreenbelt Land Trust of Mid-MissouriKansas City Wildlands/Bridging The GapLaBarque Watershed Stream Team AssociationL-A-D FoundationLitzsinger Road Ecology CenterMark Twain National Forest, USDA Forest ServiceMassasauga Flats, LLCMissouri Army National GuardMissouri Conservation Heritage FoundationMissouri Department of ConservationMissouri Department of Natural Resources, Div of
State Parks
Missouri Department of TransportationMissouri Falconers AssociationMissouri Master Naturalists:
Missouri Native Plant Society, Hawthorn ChapterMissouri Native Seed AssociationMissouri Park and Recreation AssociationMissouri Prairie FoundationMissouri Quail & Upland Wildlife Federation
Grouse ChapterMissouri River Bird ObservatoryMussel Fork Legacy Marsh LLCNational Wild Turkey Federation, MO ChapterNorth American Grouse Partnership, Missouri
ChapterOzark Center for Wildlife ResearchOzark National Scenic RiverwaysOzark Regional Land Trust, Inc.Pheasants ForeverQuail and Upland Wildlife Federation Inc.Quail ForeverSierra Club, Ozark ChapterThe Nature Conservancy, Missouri Field OfficeTruman State UniversityU.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge•Ecological Services•Great River/Clarence Cannon National Fish & •Wildlife RefugeMingo National Fish & Wildlife Refuge•Missouri Private Lands Office•Squaw Creek National Fish & Wildlife Refuge•Swan Lake National Fish & Wildlife Refuge•
University of Missouri-ColumbiaWatershed Institute, Inc and The Watershed Land
TrustWebster Groves Nature Study SocietyWild Birds for the 21st CenturyWildcat Glades Conservation & Nature CenterWings Over WestonWorld Bird Sanctuary