(migrations)

 

Hedging Their Bets

By Frank Graham Jr.

 

Why would conservationists go to the considerable trouble of cutting down miles of hedgerows, a key habitat for wildlife. At Bartel Grassland, a reclaimed 380-acre ecosystem and Important Bird Area (IBA) 25 miles south of Chicago, the answer is simple: eliminate seven miles of Osage orange and other woody plants to benefit grassland birds—many of them declining across much of the United States—and disable the drainage tiles to restore the land to its previous wet state.

Bartel Grassland was once covered by farm fields. But after the Forest Preserve District of Cook County took ownership in the 1960s, it began to manage the property for such species as bobolinks and Henslow's sparrows. Unfortunately, the hedgerows that had grown up along old fencerows fragmented the fields and gave access lanes to predators of the nesting birds.

In the 1990s several local groups approached the Forest Preserve District about restoring the area. Marianne Hahn, then president of the Thorn Creek Audubon Society, wrote a proposal that led to the cutting of hedgerows and the prescribed burning of invasive plants to prepare the soil for native prairie seeds.

Current chapter president Dick Riner leads volunteers working to keep the restoration on track. They collect native seeds, start seedlings at home, and help with prairie plantings; others monitor bird, butterfly, and frog populations. Since the hedgerows were removed, various species—including bobolinks, eastern meadowlarks, and Henslow's, grasshopper, and savannah sparrows—have increased 30 percent to 300 percent. For more on Thorn Creek Audubon, go to www.thorncreekaudubon.org .

For information on Audubon's important bird areas program, visit www.audubon.org, go to Birds & Science/Bird Conservation, and pull down to Important Bird Areas.

 

 

© 2006 National Audubon Society

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State of the Bird

Species: The bobolink is a seasonally dimorphic blackbird. The male is striking in his breeding plumage of black chest and belly, white-splotched back and rump, and straw-colored nape. Females and nonbreeding males have a buffy, darkly striped plumage.

Status: In a worrisome decline. With a population halved to an estimated 11 million individuals, it gets a red designation on Audubon's WatchList.

Range: Breeds across much of southern Canada and the northern United States. Winters in southern South America. Makes the longest migration of the blackbirds.

Threats: The bobolink has lost habitat to agriculture and development.

Outlook: Depends largely on the restoration of former breeding habitat, like at Bartel Grassland.

Learn more: To see Audubon's “State of the Birds” report and the WatchList, go to www.audubon.org, click on Birds & Science/Bird Conservation, and pull down to WatchList.