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Linking Aquatic and Terrestrial Needs for Farmland Habitat Conservation
Methow Valley Conservancy, Northeastern Washington
Planning for broad-scale habitat linkages at the regional level is a rare and
beautiful thing. In a remote farming valley east of the Cascade Mountains in
northern Washington, one such effort began with a songbird survey. In the winter
of 2001, the Methow Conservancy sent landowners in the Methow River watershed a
letter asking if they were willing to participate in a study to map critical
habitat for endangered birds. An added incentive for the first 25 who registered
was a brand new Sibley's birding guide. Much to their surprise, nearly one-third
of the 225 owners contacted agreed to participate in the program.
Biologist Katharine Bill, along with biologist Kent Woodruff and former Methow Conservancy director Brad Martin began by creating a scoring system with which they could qualitatively assess habitats. The score sheet established a matrix of six different species in cottonwood forested banks of the riparian bottomlands and in shrub-steppe upland habitats. The team hoped this approach would produce a more complete picture of various species and their different habitat needs on a given property.
Conducted over the summer months, the survey examined 7,000 acres. The individual scorecards for each property were then used to generate a color-coded map identifying priority habitats throughout the valley. With the goal to protect all the pristine habitat possible and to connect the bottomlands through the uplands with linkages and patches of contiguous habitat, this map became invaluable in ranking priority properties.
"Our goal is to keep common birds common and to protect what is rare," says Bill, a Yale-educated biologist and avid rock climber who now directs the Methow Conservancy.
The conservation easement was one of the primary tools the Conservancy used, along with a program for habitat restoration plantings. The timing of the effort couldn't have been more opportune. In the summer of 2002, they received nearly $2 million to purchase perpetual easements for development rights and to assist owners in restoring habitat. For landowners and the regional in general, there were a number of objectives for using easements as a conservation tool: (1) to protect farmland; (2) to preserve open space; (3) to lower taxes; and (4) to prevent subdivision.
Three years later, the Methow Conservancy had succeeded in negotiating more than 30 easements protecting over 3,000 acres of land in four categories: (1) riparian; (2) forest; (3) agricultural land; and (4) shrub-steppe. The project spans from Mazama to Twisp and includes easements along the Methow, Twisp, and Chewuch rivers. By the end of 2004, the conservancy expects to have 15 easements enrolled in its Farm and Ranchland Protection Program alone, totaling over 800 acres.
The Methow Conservancy also offers services such as baseline surveys, annual monitoring and landowner outreach, and stewardship planning. And to think it all began with an aspen woodland songbird survey.
Visit the Methow Valley Conservancy web site.
In this section. . .
Inspiring stories and replicable models of conservation-based agriculture.
The Malpai Borderlands Group consists of approximately two dozen landowners whose ranches span nearly a million acres in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.
Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon's Columbia Basin features undisturbed shrub-steppe habitat critical to a number of imperiled species, including ferruginous hawks, loggerhead shrikes, sage sparrow and Washington ground squirrel.
Partnering with land owners, local agencies, and other groups, Yolo County, California has an ambitious plan to create habitat linkages on public and private lands throughout this largely rural area on the boundaries of urban expansion.
Enchanted Acres, in southeastern Minnesota rotates pastures in order to maintain critical breeding habitat for many at-risk songbird species, such as meadowlarks, bobolinks, dickcissels, and savanna and vesper sparrows.
The Methow Valley Conservancy of northeastern Washington has negotiated more than 30 easements protecting over 3,000 acres of land.
Lava Lake Land and Livestock ranch in south-central Idaho has also adopted a non-lethal approach to controlling predators, which occasionally cause problems with the flocks.
