Conservation Reserve Program: Field Buffers and Birds—Monitoring Update

In August 2004, President George W. Bush announced the availability of a newly created practice in the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Conservation Reserve Program Continuous Sign-up. This practice, CP 33 Habitat Buffers For Upland Birds, was developed and recommended by the Southeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Southeast Quail Study Group and was supported by Partners In Flight and several other conservation organizations. The primary objective of the practice is to improve habitat conditions for Northern bobwhites, which are in serious decline, and to help achieve the habitat and population recovery objectives as outlined in the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (www.bobwhiteconservation.org). CP 33 also provides habitat for certain songbirds and other grassland dependent species, improves water quality and reduces soil erosion.

CP 33 provides landowners with financial incentives for establishing field buffers of native/natural vegetation with an average width of 30 to 120 feet around commercial crop fields. Fields that have been cropped during four of the six crop years between 1996-2001 are eligible for enrollment. Landowners can sign-up at county USDA offices.

A total of 250,000 CP 33 practice acres were allocated across 35 states. Georgia currently has an allotment of 5,600 acres of which approximately 1,700 acres have been enrolled. Monitoring was required for bobwhites and selected songbirds during the spring breeding season; and bobwhites only during the fall. In Georgia, personnel with the DNR Wildlife Resources Division, Game Management Section, Private Lands Program (PLP) have coordinated the monitoring effort and have been assisted by staff from FSA, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other birding enthusiasts.

Monitoring is conducting during the spring for Northern bobwhite, eastern kingbird, field sparrow, loggerhead shrike, eastern meadowlark, and indigo bunting using breeding bird survey points; and during the fall for bobwhite only using fall covey counts. A total of 40 treatment sites (fields with buffers) and 40 paired control sites (fields without buffers) are being surveyed.

Results from Georgia's 2006 spring and fall monitoring show bobwhite numbers to be higher on treatment fields than control fields. These data indicate that bobwhites are still present (although at very low densities) across the farmed landscape and have the potential to respond to significant habitat improvements. Additionally, spring monitoring found indigo buntings to be more abundant on treatment sites than on controls. It is important to note that spring 2006 was the first year post treatment for only a portion of the treatment sites, while other treatment fields were newly enrolled did not have buffers established at the time. 

Including Georgia, a total of 20 states are collecting CP 33 monitoring data, which is being compiled and analyzed by Mississippi State University.  Spring data for the Southeast Coastal Plain Bird Conservation Region 27, while preliminary, are indicating results similar to those occurring in Georgia  (see the Figure 1 above, Mark Smith, Miss State University, un-published data).

Monitoring will continue during the spring and fall of 2007 and 2008. Hopefully more acres will be enrolled and help provide a significant contribution toward restoring habitat at the landscape scale for these species.

For more information on how to participate in the CP 33 Habitat Buffers For Upland Birds project as a landowner or monitor, contact Reggie Thackston: Reggie_Thackston@dnr.state.ga.us

Download the PDF version of The Citizen Scientist Newsletter - Spring 2007 (Requires Adobe Acrobrat Reader).