Introduction

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and its 39.2 million acres have been one of the strongest conservation programs in US history. As wildlife and natural resource professionals, we have to ensure that CRP continues to maximize wildlife benefits, while addressing soil, water and resource concerns. Furthermore, CRP mid-contract management is now required and part of a CRP conservation plan. Over 22 million acres will be at the end of contract between 2007-2010 and we must have sound science available when making recommendations for re-enrollment. This symposium brought together wildlife and resource professionals to share and promote successful methods for CRP mid-contract management, and encourage future research to quantify the methods we recommend.

The passage of the 1985 Farm Bill marked the beginning of an increasing conservation title that has continued with the passage of the most recent Farm Bill in 2002. While CRP has benefited many wildlife species, it often falls short of maximizing its benefits. Wildlife benefits from CRP have often gone unrealized due to the original seeding or the successional stage the grass or tree planting has matured. A common scenario is that wildlife diversity tends to%20increase rapidly in years one to four when the planting is young, diverse and still becoming established, and then plant and wildlife diversity decreases if no management is conducted.

Throughout the US, aging, less productive CRP grass stands are now common with 50% of the CRP grass stands (16.6 million acres) being 11 years old or older. In general, these grass stands are well past their most productive period for wildlife, including pheasants, quail and grassland songbirds. In Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, over 35% of the CRP grass stands are now 15 years old or older. Considering bird productivity in most CRP fields begins to drop off after five years, most of the cover produced by CRP in the country has advanced to a stage where both diversity and productivity for wildlife is low. In many areas of the country, the natural succession of CRP stands will tend to create habitat that is dominated by grasses.

There are several management practices approved, and now required for CRP that will restore the lost productivity and diversity to a grass field. Mid-contract management is now required for all new CRP contracts, and is voluntary for previous contracts. The practices include; prescribed burning, light disking, and interseeding forbs and legumes. However, it is still unclear which practices provide the best benefits for wildlife, and this may differ regionally depending on soil types, growing season and annual precipitation. Many states have formed partnerships among State and Federal agencies and conservation groups to assist in promoting CRP mid-contract management. These successful partnerships and methods should be shared with other states around the country.

Eight years of upgrading CRP in Nebraska: Importance of partnerships and science

Pheasants Forever, Inc. and the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission entered into a partnership in 1997 to improve the wildlife habitat provided by mature grass stands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program and make Mid Contract Management (MCM) an acceptable practice for landowners and resource agencies. Efforts to improve the wildlife habitat center around creating early successional habitat with a combination of prescribed burning, disking, interseeding legumes and chemical application. The incentives offered to landowners to participate included cost share assistance, rental payments, technical assistance, contractors to perform habitat work and combinations of those incentives. Efforts to make MCM an acceptable practice have included conducting tours for resource professionals, landowners and USDA administration, producing educational and training materials and documenting wildlife responses to habitat work. This partnership effort has now expanded to include other Federal and State resource agencies, private industry and non-government organizations. When performed properly, MCM can be an extremely effective tool at increasing grassland songbird and upland game bird numbers as well as plant diversity in mature grass stands.

Breeding bird response to mid-contract management practices on CP11 pine plantations in the Southeast

As of June 2004, 1,314,020 ha were enrolled in the CRP in 12 Southeastern states. More than 42% of this acreage was in pine tree planting practices (CP3 - 12%, CP11 30%). Vegetation structure, and hence wildlife habitat value, on these plantings changes over the life of the contract. As pines age (3-6 years) canopy closure shades out herbaceous ground cover and habitat quality for early successional species declines. Most CP11 plantings are now 15-17 years old and%20are characterized by dense, closed canopies, little understory or ground cover, and substantial accumulation of needles and debris. These stands require mid-contract management to produce wildlife habitat benefits. Thinning opens the forest canopy, allows sunlight to reach the forest floor, and stimulates development of an herbaceous understory, thereby enhancing wildlife habitat value of the stand. Depending on site conditions, proximity to other forest cover, and seed bank, encroachment of low quality invasive hardwoods in the midstory may be problematic following thinning of pine stands. Use of selective herbicide and prescribed fire will effectively control hardwood invasion, release a diverse herbaceous ground cover rich in grasses, forbs, and legumes, and create a stand structure that mimics a pine/grassland. The combination of selective herbicide and fire (Quality Vegetation Management - QVM) is approved for cost share under mid-contract management guidelines in several southeastern states. In southern pine forests, QVM has been shown to increase herbaceous and understory biomass, forb and legume canopy cover, and pine growth. QVM used in mid-rotation pine plantations can increase avian species richness and abundance and produce a bird community that includes regionally declining species of high conservation priority such as northern bobwhite, Bachman’s sparrow, and brown-.headed nuthatch. Implementation of thinning, selective herbicide, and prescribed fire should be encouraged and cost-shared as a mid-contract management practice throughout the Southeast.

An evaluation of mid-contract management practices on native warm-season grass fields

The loss of quality early successional habitat has had a negative impact on several wildlife species in Tennessee. Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations have declined approximately 70 percent since 1980 as a result of habitat loss. To address this problem the USDA-NRCS has promoted native warm-season grasses (NWSG) on Conservation Reserve Program lands. However, if left unmanaged, NWSG grow dense over time and habitat benefits are reduced. Six mid-contract management practices (fall disc, dormant season mowing, spring disc, dormant season burn, herbicide application, and control) were implemented in a randomized complete block design with replication on a previously unmanaged NWSG field in Tennessee in 2003-2004. Vegetation structure and composition were measured monthly throughout the growing season and once%20in the fall, winter, and spring. Treatment effects were observed across all sampling periods for 8 of 14 structural parameters. Spring and fall discing had greater percentage forb cover and openness at ground level than all other treatments. Discing and burning treatments increased percentage bare ground and decreased percentage litter and litter depth. Percentage cover of NWSG was reduced in discing treatments, but remained similar to control in all other treatments. Soil loss was below acceptable levels determined by NRCS for all treatments. Invertebrate availability of orders preferred by bobwhites was increased by all treatments. Management recommendations will be discussed in terms of bobwhite habitat requirements and landowner objectives.

Mid-contract management of CRP and pheasant habitat selection in Nebraska

A decline in the quality and quantity of ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) nesting and brood-rearing habitat has been hypothesized as a major factor limiting population growth in the Great Plains. In 2003 the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Pheasants Forever, and USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service began a demonstration project designed to improve nesting and brood-rearing cover in older (>10 years) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands in Stanton County, Nebraska. These fields were primarily monocultures of smooth brome and switchgrass in which no management had occurred since establishment. Approximately 850 ha within a 83-km 2 focus area was disked and interseeded with legumes (alfalfa [Medicago sativa], yellow sweet clover [Melilotus officinalis], and/or red clover [Trifolium pratense]) in 2003 and 2004. This study was designed to assess habitat selection by nesting and brood-rearing pheasant hens and the subsequent survival of chicks within the focus area to ascertain the efficacy of this management approach. Results from a pilot study in 2004 suggested radiotagged hens preferred (? 2 = 12.9, 2 df, P = < .001) nesting in interseeded CRP versus untreated CRP or other grasslands. Fifty hens were radiotagged in 2005; observations of these birds will be used to confirm nest site preferences and describe habitat selection during brood-rearing and its impact on chick survival. Our results will help managers define the benefits this type of mid-contract management as a pheasant management tool.

Native grassland restoration and renovation using herbicides

Abstract: Exotic cool- and warm-season grasses have been used throughout the United States as improved forage in pastures and for wildlife habitat, conservation reserve plantings, erosion control, and a variety of other uses. The objective of this presentation is to summarize our current understanding of using various herbicides to kill exotic grasses tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), common Bermuda grass (Cyndon dactylon), bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) and quackgrass (Elytrigia repens) and establish native warm season grasses. A variety of herbicides, used alone or in combination, are effective in killing exotic grasses after a prescribed fire in the spring. Imazapic, sulfosufuron, glyphosate, and clethodim all have been found to be effective herbicides for killing tall fescue. Imazapic at 0.2 kg ai/ha, sulfosulfuron at 0.03 kg ai/ha, and clethodim at 0.21 kg ai/ha show promise for selectively removing tall fescue from native grass stands and imazapic has been shown to be effective in aiding the establishment of native warm season grasses in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Texas using conventional tillage or no-till techniques.%20In general, no-till establishment of NWSG is more successful than conventional till techniques if you effectively control the existing vegetation, provide adequate post-seeding weed control, use good quality seed placed at the proper depth.

Bobwhite quail response to mid-contract CRP management: A landowner perspective

Bobwhite quail response to mid-contract management on a northwest Missouri CRP farm is documented by the landowner-biologist since 1997. Mid-contract management on the farm consists of patch burning, strip spraying, light disking and interseeding in each year of the contract since 1999. Quail response on the 60 acre farm steadily increased from 2 coveys in 1997 to 12 coveys in 2004. Pheasant populations peaked and remained steady after 1999. Missouri CRP mid-contract management practices, timing and methods were largely based on results on this farm. The site has been used for training USDA and state agency personnel on BWQ management techniques. Similar quail response upon implementing CRP management techniques is discussed for other Missouri farms.

Grassland bird response to disking/interseeding of legumes in Conservation Reserve Program lands in northeast Nebraska

Throughout the Midwest, grassland birds have been declining faster than any other group of birds, with the main cause for these declines being the extensive loss of native prairies. During the last 25 years, surrogate grasslands, such as Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands, have become increasingly important as an alternative habitat for grassland birds. However, many CRP grasslands that once provided excellent habitat are now dominated by monoculture stands of grass that have reduced wildlife benefits. In summer 2000, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Pheasants Forever partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service to initiate a program that promotes disking and interseeding legumes in CRP to improve nesting and brood-rearing habitat for ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus). Disking and interseeding will also likely affect grassland birds, yet there has been no research on their response to this practice. The objectives of.this study are to determine grassland bird abundance and nest-productivity in disked and interseeded CRP, evaluate vegetative responses to disking and interseeding, and provide management recommendations that may influence future farm bill policy regarding CRP grasslands. We conducted our 2-year study on 8 experimental fields that had been disked and interseeded and 8 undisturbed reference fields in Stanton County, Nebraska. We used fixed transects to determine avian species richness and abundance and nest-searched 8, 4-ha plots (2 in reference sites, 6 in experimental sites) to determine nest productivity. We also recorded vegetation characteristics along each transect and at each nest. Findings from the first year of this study indicate experimental fields had higher avian species richness and a higher abundance of dickcissels (Spiza americana) and grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum). Nest densities in experimental fields were 3 times greater than in reference fields.