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Tag Archive for: avian
Tag Archive for: avian
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Tag Archive for: avian
Freeport-McMoRan | Uniendose Para Proteger El Búho de Madriguera en Arizona
El búho de madriguera es una especie de búho única – no solo son activos en la noche y en el día pero también son animales que anidan y descienden bajo tierra. Como no son capaces de cavar sus propias madrigueras, estos animalitos crean sus hogares de espacios abandonados cavados por otros animales como las ardillas. Desafortunadamente, el número de búho de madriguera ha estado decayendo, y son consideradas una especie de interés en la Florida y al oeste de los Estados Unidos. En un esfuerzo por proteger al búho de madriguera, empresas como Freeport-McMoRan están implementando la instalación de madrigueras artificiales, proporcionando el hábitat necesario para esta criatura única y hermosa.
Localizado en el valle de Gila de Arizona, el programa de las operaciones de Freeport-McMoRan Safford ha hecho grande progreso para conservar el hábitat del búho de madriguera con las instalaciones de madrigueras artificiales y reubicando a este especie. El sitio del proyecto de conservación, conocido como el Hábitat de Búho de San José, fue seleccionado por sus condiciones ideales – los campos agrícolas adyacentes apoyan una amplia presa para el búho y el Río Gila y las áreas ribereñas están lo suficientemente lejos como para no inundar el sitio.
Buscando experiencia en el hábitat de búho de madriguera, el equipo de Freeport se asoció con WHC y Wild at Heart, una organización de rescate de rapaces basada en Arizona. La primera fase del proyecto fue lanzada en la primavera de 2013 con la construcción de 100 madrigueras artificiales, las cuales se emparejan con una perca de madera que los búhos utilizan para vigilar a sus depredadores. Varios racimos de madrigueras se abrieron más adelante ese año para animar el reclutamiento natural de búhos al sitio.
“La colaboración con un grupo diverso de socios locales es la clave para el éxito de este proyecto.”
La segunda fase del proyecto inició en 2014, cuando el equipo trabajó con Wild at Heart para trasladar a 16 búhos de madriguera al sitio. Más de dos docenas de voluntarios de Freeport, Wild at Heart, WHC, escuelas locales y soldados de Boy Scouts construyeron tiendas de campaña y colocaron a los búhos dentro de sus “casas” temporales. Las tiendas proporcionaron un espacio seguro para que los búhos se aclimataran a su nuevo entorno y las madrigueras artificiales. Después de 30 días, durante los cuales los búhos se les proporcionaron comida y agua, las tiendas fueron retiradas. Esta técnica de reubicación se conoce como “liberación suave”, con diferentes variaciones utilizadas para reubicar especies de animales silvestres. El equipo estaba emocionado al descubrir que varias parejas establecieron nidos en las madrigueras, mientras que otros se trasladaron a madrigueras adyacentes después de que las tiendas fueran removidas. La construcción de la tienda de lanzamiento y la colocación del búho se repitió el año siguiente con otros 20 búhos desplazados, nuevamente con mucho éxito. Los empleados de Freeport monitorearon continuamente el hábitat de los búhos lo usan para asegurarse que todo vaya bien.
Este esfuerzo colaborativo encabezado por Freeport demostró ser la clave para el éxito de este proyecto. Reunir una red diversa de socios, como WHC, Wild at Heart, Gila Watershed Partnership y Eastern Arizona College, fue invaluable para llevar a cabo las diversas fases del proyecto y generó un entusiasmo más amplio por el hábitat.
Tanto la participación de los empleados como la de la comunidad también han sido fundamentales para este proyecto. Esto fue evidente en el primer evento comunitario, que acogió a más de 100 participantes. El equipo de Freeport continúa involucrando a la comunidad y aumentando conciencia sobre el búho de madriguera organizando eventos tales como días de conservación, excursiones con aprendizaje práctico para escuelas cercanas y una celebración del éxito del proyecto para el equipo y sus socios.
Los esfuerzos excepcionales del equipo en la conservación de los búhos de madriguera fueron reconocidos en la Conferencia de Conservación 2016, donde fueron galardonados con el Premio al Proyecto Avian 2016.
DTE Energy | An Urban Oasis for Community and Wildlife in Industrial Detroit
En Español
A power plant in an industrial area of Detroit at the juncture of the Rouge and Detroit Rivers is hardly the place one ventures for a retreat to nature. But a team of employee volunteers at DTE Energy have created an urban oasis at the company’s 105-acre River Rouge Power Plant.
Determined to utilize unused space amidst a sea of buildings and pavement, the team prioritized the incorporation of habitat wherever possible on the property, replacing every square inch of lawn with native, wildlife-friendly vegetation and creating a 5-acre nature area, repurposed from an unused, mowed field. Here, employees and visitors alike can enjoy and learn about the abundant tree plantings, prairie habitat, ponds and trails.
Great care was taken with the choices of landscape and species to ensure they were native to the region and beneficial to existing wildlife, according to Kirsten LeForce, DTE Energy conservation programs coordinator. The native plantings of trees, grasses and flowers include a variety of species that provide food for migrating birds, which stop over at the site in large numbers each spring and fall. The nature area also features a snake hibernaculum which provides cover habitat for Michigan state-threatened eastern fox snakes.
From the beginning, the nature area was meant to be enjoyed not only by employees but also the surrounding community, which lacked a useable source of greenspace. The River Rouge Power Plant hosts events several times a year, inviting local elementary schools and other community groups to participate in nature walks along the trails, tree planting, invasive species removal, pond sampling, and educational presentations about Michigan’s animals.
Another priority was the shoreline since the area was in dire need of restoration. In an effort to attract native birds and fish, the team received a Five Star Restoration Grant in 2010 to implement soft-shore engineering along the hardened Rouge River shoreline. This successfully-restored area now provides valuable habitat for herons and fish, and the native vegetation prevents the shoreline from eroding any further. The team also attempted to create nesting habitat for state-threatened common terns along the shoreline. However, despite working with several experts and utilizing best-practice tactics to attract terns, these birds have not yet successfully nested on-site. Jason Cousino, the Wildlife Habitat Coordinator for the River Rouge facility, noted that no matter how much time, energy and excitement goes into a project, it still may not be successful, but important lessons can be learned from failures just as much as successes.
Above all, LeForce remarked that the employees’ “passion for their site” is what drives the program’s continued success. Employees from all levels can get involved with the projects that are important to them, and the team receives an abundance of support from site management for implementing and maintaining projects.
Related Content
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- The Greening of Detroit – How DTE Energy and GM are Helping to Restore Nature in America’s Comeback City
- Grow It, Don’t Mow It!
- The Kestrel and the Steel Mill – How the Urban Industrial Landscape Can Support Climate, Community and Habitats
- A Hands-On Approach to Building the STEM Workforce of Tomorrow
- Back to School: Partnering with Local Schools to Strengthen Your Certification Program
- Habitat Design that Invites Exploration
- Wildlife in Winter: Migration
- What’s All the Fuss About Native Plants?
- Webinars:
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- Avian
- Grasslands
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- White Papers:
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Freeport-McMoRan | Teaming Up to Protect the Burrowing Owl in Arizona
En Español
Burrowing owls are unique among owls — not only are they often active during both night and day, they are also the only owl species that nests and roosts underground. As they aren’t able to dig their own burrows, they create homes from abandoned spaces dug out by other animals like ground squirrels. Unfortunately, burrowing owl numbers are declining, and they are considered a species of concern in Florida and many parts of the western United States. In an effort to protect the burrowing owl, companies like Freeport-McMoRan are implementing large-scale installation of artificial burrows, providing valuable and much-needed habitat for this unique and beautiful creature.
Located in the Gila Valley of Arizona, the Freeport-McMoRan Safford Operations program has made great strides to conserve burrowing owl habitat with artificial burrows and relocation procedures. The conservation project site, known as the San Jose Burrowing Owl Habitat, was selected for its ideal conditions — the adjacent agricultural fields support ample prey for burrowing owls, and the Gila River and riparian areas are far enough away that dangers such as flooding and predation by raptors are minimal.
Seeking expertise in burrowing owl habitat, the Freeport team partnered with WHC and Wild at Heart, an Arizona-based raptor rescue organization. The first phase of the project was launched in the spring of 2013 with the construction of 100 artificial burrows. Each burrow is paired with a wooden perch that owls use to watch for predators. Several clusters of burrows were opened later that year to encourage natural recruitment of owls to the site.
Collaboration with a diverse group of local partners is the key to this project’s success.
The second phase began in 2014, when the team worked with Wild at Heart to relocate 16 displaced burrowing owls to the site. Over two dozen volunteers from Freeport, Wild at Heart, WHC, local schools, and Boy Scouts troops constructed release tents and then placed the owls inside these temporary “homes.” The tents provided a safe space for the owls to acclimate to their new surroundings and the artificial burrows. After 30 days, during which the owls were provided food and water, the tents were removed. This relocation technique is commonly referred to as a “soft release,” with different variations used for relocating other wild animal species. The team was thrilled to discover that several breeding pairs had already established nests in the burrows; others moved to adjacent burrows after the tents were removed. The release tent construction and owl placement was repeated the next year with an additional 20 displaced owls, again with much success. Freeport employees continually monitor the habitat and the owls using it to ensure they are thriving.
This collaborative endeavor spearheaded by Freeport proved to be the key to this project’s success. Bringing together a diverse network of partners, such as WHC, Wild at Heart, Gila Watershed Partnership and Eastern Arizona College, was invaluable to accomplishing the various phases of the project and it generated broader enthusiasm about the habitat.
Both employee and community participation has also been instrumental to the project. This was evident at the first community event, which hosted over 100 participants. The Freeport team continues to engage the community in the project and increase awareness about the burrowing owl by hosting events such as Conservation Days, field trips with hands-on learning for nearby schools, and a celebration of the project’s success for the team and its partners.
The team’s exceptional efforts in burrowing owl conservation were recognized at the 2016 Conservation Conference, where they were awarded the 2016 Avian Project Award.
Related Content
- Blogs:
- Webinars:
- Project Guidances:
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WM | Helping Boy Scouts Achieve Their Goals through Conservation Projects
En Español
WM’s El Sobrante Landfill and Wildlife Preserve spans 1,333 acres in the town of Corona, California, 27 miles east of Los Angeles. This site is comprised of both active landfill and undisturbed open space, with nearly 700 acres actively managed as a habitat preserve. The team works diligently to protect sensitive and rare species by implementing the landfill’s Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), which was developed in 2001. The HCP covers 31 species of concern, including the federally-endangered and state-threatened Stephens’ kangaroo rat and federally-threatened coastal California gnatcatcher.
Miriam Cardenas, Community Relations Specialist and team leader for the conservation program, noted the popularity of the program among volunteers from the surrounding community. One particularly keen group of volunteers is the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Through this successful and long-standing partnership, the Scouts have completed a variety of conservation projects at the site, including those that helped fulfill badge requirements and at least 11 Eagle Scout and Gold Award projects, and contributing to the landfill’s goals for the HCP in the process. The team provides interested Scouts with a list of potential projects that would be helpful in meeting conservation goals, allowing the Scouts to choose a project that best suits their interests and requirements.
Several of the Scouts’ projects have involved artificial nesting and roosting structures, which help the Scouts strengthen their STEM skills through activities like measuring materials and using design schematics to construct the structures. For instance, the Scouts built 20 artificial nesting burrows for burrowing owls, a species covered under the HCP that has a low population in the area near the site. This species typically nests in abandoned burrows made by other species like ground squirrels. Although no nesting activity has occurred in the burrows yet, a male burrowing owl was observed scouting the burrows, spending about a month in two of them. Other structures built by the Scouts include barn owl nest boxes and bat houses.
The Scouts have also participated in several habitat restoration and protection projects, including native cactus plantings, trash cleanups of over 60 acres of historic illegal dumping, and closure of illegal ATV trails with the use of rocks, brush, and native cactus plantings to block and disguise the trails. When one Boy Scout wanted to help rapidly-declining monarch populations, the team provided him with an opportunity to plant native milkweed plants and seeds that have successfully been used by monarchs. This project was also recently completed by a local Girl Scout troop. Several Scouts created an artificial rock outcrop to help propagate the rare many-stemmed dudleya plant, and with instruction from the site team they processed collected seed pods and spread the seeds onto the outcrop using salt shakers. Several groups of Scouts also helped the team to replant native sycamore and western cottonwood trees in an area burned by wildfire in 2007, restoring important trees that in 2015 became nesting habitat for the state- and federally-endangered least Bell’s vireo.
The WM El Sobrante team has fostered a successful, integrated partnership with the local Boy and Girl Scouts by accommodating the interests and needs of the Scouts with projects that benefit the site’s conservation goals. It is a fine demonstration of how to create impactful, long-lasting partnerships that fulfill the goals of both partners.
Related Content
- Blogs:
- Webinars:
- Scouting and Your Habitat: Building a Partnership
- STEM Learning in Your Habitat
- Building Effective Partnerships: Case Studies
- Why Bats Matter: Protection and Awareness Strategies
- Bat Conservation on Your Corporate Landscape
- Monarchs in Peril – How Can You Help?
- The Value and Beauty of Birds: Creating Successful Habitat Programs with a Focus on Birds
- Project Guidances:
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WIN Waste | Ensuring a Home for Migratory Birds
En Español
Located on an upland island off the coast of Massachusetts and surrounded by the 1,300-acre Rumney Marsh Area of Critical Environmental Concern, the Wheelabrator Saugus Inc. Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary provides 340 acres of upland and intertidal habitat for migratory birds and a variety of other wildlife.
This program serves as a model of how active operations and a wildlife sanctuary can easily co-exist without conflict, and indeed, to the benefit of both wildlife and business needs.
The Wheelabrator team members who manage the Sanctuary’s habitats are primarily focused on providing quality habitat for migratory birds, particularly the 24 rare specialized species in the area that are suffering the most from habitat loss. The team’s active management of the site’s 9 different habitat types maintains the signature tones and textural features that birds use to identify stopover habitat from high in the air during their migratory journey along the Atlantic Flyway. These efforts have been so successful that as of 2016, employees and community volunteers have documented 178 bird species at the Sanctuary, including 15 of the 24 specialized bird species and several vagrant species that arrived by accident, likely as a result of being blown off-course during migration by a storm. Without active management, these bird species would not be enticed to come and stay at the Sanctuary.
Along with migratory birds, the team also maintains a number of other projects to manage the 9 habitats in an integrated manner, including control of several invasive and nuisance species. These efforts to benefit wildlife began in the mid-1990s with construction of the various upland habitats as part of the post-closure reuse plan for an older landfill.
Wheelabrator’s conservation efforts are not limited to the Sanctuary. The Bear Creek facility also includes an energy-from-waste plant and an ash monofill. This program serves as a model of how active operations and a wildlife sanctuary can easily co-exist without conflict, and indeed, to the benefit of both wildlife and business needs. The team attributes much of their success to regular meetings between the various operating units on-site, which have been held since the mid-90s when construction of the habitats began. Collaborating has helped to enhance understanding of each group’s needs and overcome various facility limitations or misconceptions, which in turn helps promote harmony between habitat and wildlife management efforts and facility operations. Frequent communication through these meetings also allows the team to identify opportunities, such as the potential for reforestation when a portion of the property will become inactive for the long-term.
Community volunteers, who visit the site for bird walks and tours, make a significant contribution to the achievements of the program. The core group of birders who regularly attend the walks and tours provide invaluable assistance in identifying birds and documenting these observations on Cornell University’s eBird.org. These dedicated birders also serve as unofficial ambassadors for the program, sharing the program’s achievements with other members of the community.
The Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary serves as a model of success for any program wishing to balance habitat management with business needs. By maintaining active management of the site’s habitats and working closely with both the site’s operational staff and a core group of community volunteers, the team ensures that migratory birds can continue to find quality habitat on site for the long term.
Related Content
- Blogs:
- Webinars:
- Project Guidances:
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