Large‐scale fire management restores grassland bird richness for a private lands ecoregion

Abstract

Of all terrestrial biomes, grasslands are losing the most biodiversity the most rapidly, so there is a critical need to document and learn from large‐scale restoration successes. In the Loess Canyons ecoregion of the Great Plains, USA, an association of private ranchers and natural resource agencies has led a multi‐decadal, ecoregion‐scale initiative to combat the loss of grasslands to woody plant encroachment by restoring large‐scale fire regimes. Here, we use 14 years of fire treatment history with 6 years of grassland bird monitoring and remotely sensed tree cover data across 136,767 ha of privately owned grassland to quantify outcomes of large‐scale grassland restoration efforts. Grassland bird richness increased across 65% (90,032 ha) of the Loess Canyons, and woody plant cover decreased up to 55% across 25% (7408 ha) of all fire‐treated areas. This was accomplished with extreme fire treatments that killed mature trees, were large (mean annual area burned was 3100 ha), spatially clustered and straddled boundaries between invasive woodlands and remaining grasslands – not heavily infested woodlands. Findings from this study provide the first evidence of human management reversing the impacts of woody encroachment on grassland birds at an ecoregion scale.

Beyond inappropriate fire regimes: A synthesis of fire‐driven declines of threatened mammals in Australia

“…A range of emerging actions and strategies will be needed to manage fire for mammalian conservation in Australia and globally. These include habitat restoration, Indigenous fire stewardship, planned burning, rapid recovery teams that assist wildlife after fire, reintroductions, and targeted fire suppression (Bird et al., 2018; Geary et al., 2021; Martins et al., 2022; Roberts et al., 2022). Models that simulate management alternatives and different fire regimes offer opportunities to explore the effectiveness of potential strategies (Nitschke et al., 2020).…”

Beyond inappropriate fire regimes: a synthesis of fire-driven declines of threatened mammals in Australia

“…A range of emerging actions and strategies will be needed to manage fire for mammal conservation in Australia and globally. These include habitat restoration, Indigenous fire stewardship, planned burning, rapid recovery teams that assist wildlife after fire, reintroductions and targeted fire suppression (Bird et al, 2018; Geary et al, 2021; Martins et al, 2022; Roberts et al, 2022). Models that simulate management alternatives and different fire regimes offer opportunities to explore the effectiveness of potential strategies (Nitschke et al, 2020).…”

An efficient acoustic classifier for high‐priority avian species in the southern Great Plains using convolutional neural networks

“…acoustic, autonomous recording unit, Bell's vireo, convolutional neural network, dickcissel, eastern meadowlark, grassland birds, northern bobwhite, painted bunting, template matching Population declines have been reported worldwide across a wide range of avian species (Thomas et al 2004, Szabo et al 2012, Sauer et al 2013, resulting from a variety of factors, including climate change (Northrup et al 2019, Stewart et al 2022, urbanization and land use change (Sol et al 2020, Thaweepworadej andEvans 2022), and the spread of invasive species and disease (Ishtiaq 2021). One particular biome at great risk of conversion is grasslands, which would result in a substantial loss of biodiversity (Newbold et al 2016, Roberts et al 2022, Wilcox et al 2022.…”

“…Population declines have been reported worldwide across a wide range of avian species (Thomas et al 2004, Szabo et al 2012, Sauer et al 2013), resulting from a variety of factors, including climate change (Northrup et al 2019, Stewart et al 2022), urbanization and land use change (Sol et al 2020, Thaweepworadej and Evans 2022), and the spread of invasive species and disease (Ishtiaq 2021). One particular biome at great risk of conversion is grasslands, which would result in a substantial loss of biodiversity (Newbold et al 2016, Roberts et al 2022, Wilcox et al 2022). In North America, grasslands comprise a large proportion of the Great Plains and are hotspots for biodiversity, repositories for carbon sequestration, and sources of clean water (Wilcox et al 2022).…”

“…In North America, grasslands comprise a large proportion of the Great Plains and are hotspots for biodiversity, repositories for carbon sequestration, and sources of clean water (Wilcox et al 2022). It is within these areas that grassland‐obligate birds are experiencing the sharpest declines among all species (Rosenberg et al 2019, Roberts et al 2022). Therefore, monitoring avian populations will become increasingly urgent (Rosenberg et al 2019) to inform and implement successful conservation and management programs to maintain biodiversity.…”