Date:
May 9, 2017
Source:
University of Washington
The
sage grouse is an exceptionally showy bird and an icon of the American West.
But its sagebrush habitat is disappearing, and there is debate over how best to
protect the populations in an increasingly developed landscape.
A
new study by University of Washington, state and federal researchers analyzed
sage grouse in Eastern Washington and showed a surprisingly large benefit from
a federal program that subsidizes farmers to plant year-round grasses and native
shrubs instead of crops. Although the program was adopted for many different
reasons, the study finds it is probably the reason that sage grouse still live
in portions of Washington's Columbia Basin.
"Without
these lands, our models predict that we would lose about two thirds of the
species' habitat, and that the sage grouse would go extinct in two of three
subpopulations," said first author Andrew Shirk, a research scientist with
the UW's Climate Impacts Group. The study will appear in an upcoming issue of
the Journal of Wildlife Management.
The
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was established in 1985. It is a voluntary
federal program that pays farmers to plant agricultural land with
environmentally beneficial vegetation for 10- to 15-year contracts. The
program's goals include improving water quality, reducing soil erosion and
boosting wildlife habitat.
Of
the roughly 24 million acres planted through the program in the United States,
about 1.4 million acres are in Eastern Washington. The fields are planted with
native shrubs and perennial grasses that provide cover for sage grouse and
other animals.
"From
the outset, it was envisioned that the CRP program would be good for
wildlife," Shirk said. "But I don't think anyone expected that it
would be this valuable. Our results show CRP isn't a substitute for native
sagebrush, but mature CRP fields nearby augment native habitat and have had a
tremendous positive impact -- it's a wildlife conservation success story."
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