The extraction of natural gas from shale formations in Appalachia has become a contentious political and environmental issue partially due to concerns over habitat loss and the fragmentation and degradation of wildlife habitat. However to date, no study has examined the effects of Marcellus shale gas development on avian populations. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University are developing new models to evaluate the impacts of this development on bird populations in the region. The abundance and occupancy probability of many grassland and interior forest bird species consistently increases
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The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR), Wildlife Resources Section has published a guide titled Enhancing Wildlife Habitat on Oil and Gas Infrastructure. The purpose of this publication is to provide information regarding management activities that will provide or enhance wildlife habitat associated with well sites, pipelines and access roads. Paul Johansen, Chief of the Wildlife Resources Section, recommends that landowners and industry use this non-regulatory guide to improve habitat for a variety of game and non-game wildlife. This includes those species that use the edges of developed areas, where natural habitats meet human habitats and animals and wildlife
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New data suggest that drinkers of the world’s most popular beverage increasingly favor roasts that are good for birds that inhabit the world’s coffee-growing regions. One such coffee is Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) Certified Bird-Friendly Coffee (BF coffee): Its trademark rich flavor reflects growing conditions that lead the industry both in organic qualities and bird-friendliness. Sales of Smithsonian’s BF coffee from Central and South America more than doubled between 2010 and 2014, with some individual distributers recording even larger increases. Meanwhile, to meet this escalating demand, new farmers are signing on to provide coffee beans that meet the BF
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A conservation corridor in Colombia ten years in the making is now providing critical winter habitat for the Cerulean Warbler, a songbird whose numbers have fallen by 70 percent since 1966. Six miles long and a half-mile wide, the corridor is the result of a collaboration between American Bird Conservancy and two Colombian partners: Fundación ProAves, one of the country’s leading conservation groups, and Fondo para la Acción Ambiental y la Niñez, an organization that focuses on community, youth, and environmental projects. To create the corridor, 500,000 seedlings of 26 native trees — grown in nurseries at the nearby Cerulean
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Landowners are pouring time, money and sweat into their properties in an effort to convert marginal land into high-quality habitat that benefits turkeys, quail and a variety of other wildlife. They are planting wildlife-friendly shrubs, thinning timber and converting fallow fields into nesting habitat. There can be a difference, though, between doing something and doing something right. While cutting trees and burning fields can be great for turkeys, cutting the wrong trees or burning at the wrong time of year can be detrimental to your goals. Three reasons to hire a professional consultant: These experts know wildlife and wildlife
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A new website unveiled by The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) provides unprecedented estimates of the vital rates of over 150 species of North American landbirds and will significantly improve strategies for reversing the population declines that are occurring in many of these species. Vital Rates of North American Landbirds provides estimates of the annual rates of survival, reproduction, recruitment, and population change for each of the 150 species. The data is based on analyses of hundreds of thousands of bird banding and recapture records collected over a 15-year (1992-2006) period across the U.S. and southern Canada by the Monitoring Avian
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Click here to view and download the 2023 AMJV Partnership Year in Review!
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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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