Within the next few decades, human-caused habitat loss looms as the greatest threat to some North American breeding birds. The problem will be most severe on their wintering grounds, according to a new study published today in the journal Global Change Biology. By the end of this century, the study’s authors say predicted changes in rainfall and temperature will compound the problem for birds that breed in eastern North America and winter in Central America. “This is really the first study to measure the combined impact of climate change and land-use change over a bird’s full annual cycle,” says lead author
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Check out the Story Map of this Habitat Hero Blog here. Since 1866 – a year after the end of the Civil War – John Hoover’s family has owned property in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Over the decades, the largely forested property became subdivided and boundary lines and titles blurred with most of the land going into disuse. Nearly 40 years ago, when John inherited a portion of the original property, he figured the best way to unclutter boundary lines and make better use of the land was to buy as much of the surrounding forest and original deed as possible.
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At the AMJV Northeast Region Partner meeting, 25 participants representing 10 agencies and organizations from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania held talks on implementing conservation and management practices to achieve a diverse forest system on private, commercial, and public lands in the region. The American Bird Conservancy’s Birdscapes concept was highlighted as a means for piloting such implementation. The Birdscapes approach identifies landscape-scale areas large enough to increase the numbers of targeted bird species throughout their life-cycles, but small enough to facilitate measurement of results. As part of the meeting, Ian Davidson and Amanda Bassow gave a presentation via
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AMJV Science Coordinator Dr. Becky Keller is an invited speaker at a half-day symposium on bird conservation on managed forest landscapes at The Wildlife Society (TWS) meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico September 23-27, 2017. Becky will discuss how Migratory Bird Joint Ventures are bridging the gap between high level conservation planning by international bird partnerships like Partners in Flight and local and regional habitat delivery specialists who work with landowners and foresters to improve habitat conditions for birds on public and private forested lands. She will be joined by other presenters from the AMJV partnership, including E.J. Williams of the
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At our recent Management Board meeting, state representatives presented on and identified focal landscapes where the AMJV partnership can provide the bird context for conservation and enhance capacity to achieve success. These focal landscapes within the Appalachians contain a large mix of public and private lands, have a tremendous amount of partner synergy taking place, and are vital to AMJV priority bird species. The goal of the initiative is to enhance the diversity of forest structure and species in the long term while integrating forest restoration efforts with bird conservation objectives. Areas currently identified by local partners include: Southwestern New
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The Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have finished a series of workshops across Pennsylvania and Ohio for land owners detailing practices that can improve forest habitats for birds and other wildlife. Along with describing how different forest management techniques can result in healthy, diverse habitat, the workshops introduced landowners to various resources such as cost-share programs and private lands foresters available to facilitate this type of management. In Pennsylvania, AMJV staff and partners working with Allegheny National Forest staff held a workshop in Bradford on June 9-10 that was attended by 41 landowners. The first
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The 2023 AMJV Impact Report is now available for downloading and sharing! Starting in 2022, this beautiful report has been designed annually by Liz Brewer (AMJV Outreach Specialist) to…
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by Liz Brewer, AMJV Outreach Specialist Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV), in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), and the West Virginia…
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The new AMJV 2022 Impact Report is now available for downloading and sharing! This beautiful report was designed by Liz (AMJV Outreach Specialist) to be handed out to congressional leadership…
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