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Missouri landowners will play a role in helping birds that winter along the Gulf Coast after the massive oil spill there. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…
Missouri landowners are urged to sign up by this Friday (7/23) to join a federal initiative to help migratory birds whose winter habitat has been harmed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.The initiative, managed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, aims to maximize migratory bird habitat and food resources on up to 150,000 acres of private land.Keith Jackson, private land programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, says the initiative is a two-pronged effort to try to provide improved habitat this fall for a variety of water birds as they begin their migration south…
"We know that there's a strong likelihood that the wetlands, particularly the coastal wetlands and especially deeper water habitats, are likely to have some negative impacts due to the Gulf oil spill, and the thought was that, by providing habitat in Missouri as the birds are beginning to migrate south, that the birds will at least arrive on the wintering grounds in excellent condition."
Funding provided to Missouri thru the initiative will also help improve spring habitats. Jackson says, if the birds are negatively impacted by conditions in the Gulf this winter, they’ll be able to stop and refuel on habitats in Missouri on their way to their nesting grounds in the spring…
"Because we do know that, their condition when they arrive on the nesting grounds has an immediate and direct impact on their ability to reproduce for next year."
One part of the initiative is aimed largely at cropland re-flooding. $1.5 million will be available to pay cost share to landowners to re-flood their cropland as early as August 1st. Jackson says Missouri will have shorebirds migrating thru from July thru November.The other part is aimed at improving management on Wetland Reserve Program acres—land that has been restored to wetland from crop land. $1.27 million will be available for that.According to Kevin Dacey, NRCS Natural Resource Specialist, other states receiving money thru the initiative are Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida…
"Missouri being the northern most state involved in this initiative, it's going to be pretty clear that it's going to be important for us to put the resource down first so that the birds find this available resource early on their migration, fuel up and arrive down in the southern portions of the United States in good shape."
The cropland re-flooding is restricted in Missouri to landowners in the Missouri Bootheel in Ripley, Butler, Bollinger, Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Dunklin Counties. The Wetland Reserve Program leg of the initiative includes those counties as well as Bates, Vernon, Johnson, Lafayette, Saline, Cooper, Monitau and Cole Counties.Landowners who would like more information should contact their local NRCS office.
