Subject: [Tweeters] Press Release and Streaked Horned Lark TV debut
Date: Aug 17 21:39:30 2007
From: Valerie Elliott - VElliott at msn.com


FW: Press Release and Streaked Horned Lark TV debutI saw this on NWCN yesterday and thought that some tweeters might find it interesting. Streaked horned larks are also found on McChord Air Force Base.

Valerie Elliott
Olympia, WA


PRESS RELEASE


Keeping an Eye on Streaked Horned Larks




Biologists use remote viewing camera to understand what?s threatening rare bird



Fort Lewis, Washington? The streaked horned lark is under siege. The small songbird nests on the ground in Puget Sound prairies, and its habitat has mostly vanished. Where the prairie remains, the bird?s ground-dwelling habits make it easy prey for other critters that devour its eggs and nestlings.



Scott Pearson, with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), has set up remote-sensing video cameras to keep an eye on several nests at Fort Lewis, where some of the last remaining undisturbed prairie in the south Puget Sound region provides a haven for larks and other rare species. With the camera monitoring program, he hopes to identify what predators are threatening the bird, and develop a management strategy to protect the lark.



He?s working under an Army Compatible Use Buffer (ACUB) grant from the U.S. Army, administered by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Like many military bases in the United States, Fort Lewis Military Installation has become a habitat island within a sea of development. Fort Lewis provides some of the largest remaining expanses of prairie in the south Puget Sound region. The region?s prairies are being lost due to human encroachment and urbanization, the lack of natural wildfires, and the intrusion of conifers and nonnative vegetation. In addition to the streaked horned lark, three other species that occur on these prairies are federal candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act: the Mazama pocket gopher, the Taylor?s checkerspot butterfly, and the mardon skipper butterfly. If any of these species were to become listed, significant military training restrictions could be imposed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.



In an effort to avoid listing, Fort Lewis has partnered with TNC, the Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and WDFW to enact an ACUB program aimed at regional recovery of these four species. ACUB funding is focused on non-Army prairie in Thurston and Pierce Counties, complementing recovery efforts already occurring on Fort Lewis. Traditionally, ACUB has been used to buy lands surrounding military installations to curtail encroachment and act as lifeboats for rare species. At Fort Lewis, however, Army funds are being used for on-site land management and habitat restoration on non-Army prairie. The non-military partners have provided all funds for land purchase and some funds for management. This ACUB, along with other cooperative, regional conservation efforts, such as a Candidate Conservation Agreement between partners and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, decreases the likelihood that the candidate species? will become listed under the Endangered Species Act.



To date, the ACUB partners have bought 1,105 acres of land: 806-acre West Rocky Prairie (WDFW), 127-acre Morgan Preserve (TNC), an 80-acre addition to Thurston County?s Glacial Heritage Preserve (WDFW), and 92 acres of additions to Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve (WDNR). These new acquisitions complement 3,179 acres of already-protected, non-Army prairie in the region.



The streaked horned lark monitoring program, which began this year, has received $54,000 in ACUB funding. The ACUB program has brought in $1million dollars for conservation efforts in South Puget Sound prairies over the last two years, and is expected to be funded at a total of $2.2 million dollars over five years..



Other ACUB-funded projects include non-native vegetation control , butterfly habitat enhancement, butterfly habitat-use studies and captive-rearing programs, research to determine the distribution and abundance of Mazama pocket gopher, site-specific restoration plans for regional prairie preserves, a prescribed fire program start-up, and mapping and monitoring of prairie vegetation. In the near future, ACUB will be used to fund butterfly reintroduction onto non-Army prairie where they have previously gone extinct. In the case of the Taylor?s checkerspot, the butterfly population that currently inhabits Fort Lewis? artillery impact area will provide larvae (caterpillars) or eggs for the reintroduction. Projects are selected by consensus among the ACUB partners, following technica <<image001.gif>> l review by a panel of scientists.





King 5 news aired a piece about the Streaked Horned Lark Predator Identification project ? See the bit at:

http://www.king5.com/video/news-in <<image002.gif>> dex.html?nvid=167386&shu=1







Hannah Anderson

Rare Species Project Manager

handerson at tnc.org
360.701.8803









The Nature Conservancy
South Puget Sound Program

120 E Union St. #215
Olympia, WA 98502

www.southsoundprairies.org <http://www.southsoundprairies.org/>