The nonprofit Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory has received a $244,351 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for neotropical migratory bird conservation and $888,625 in matching grants for shortgrass-prairie conservation.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today announced $4.8 million in grants and $18 million in matching funds moved through U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants for neotropical migratory bird conservation in the Western Hemisphere.
The observatory, headquartered at Barr Lake State Park near Brighton, will use the money to conserve habitat for high-priority grassland bird species in Western North America.
High-priority species are those having significant population declines or whose breeding and wintering grounds are threatened.
In Colorado, they include mountain plover, McCown’s longspur, lark bunting, loggerhead shrike, long-billed curlew, prairie falcon, Northern harrier and burrowing owls, said Greg Levandoski, a biologist at the bird observatory’s Fort Collins office.
The partner match will be used to protect 440 acres and manage another 55,000 acres in the Soapstone shortgrass prairie conservation area in Larimer County, where there are breeding populations of at least 22 high-priority grassland bird species.
The projects include monitoring populations and nesting areas on the Soapstone property, and researching the health of grassland birds that winter in agricultural areas in Mexico. The research will help develop conservation strategies for the mountain plover and 25 other species.
Grant funds also will help recruit landowners to conservation programs for mountain plovers in Colorado and Nebraska, including training landowners in agricultural areas to identify and protect nests on their property.
