Not every farmer is pleased to host birds. Some are concerned about the spread of bird flu, others are worried that the birds will eat too much of their valuable crops. But since an unstable climate does not provide enough water, caring temperatures and chaotic storms, the fate of the production of human food and birds are increasingly connected – with the same climate abnormalities that harm birds that also hurt agriculture.
In some places, the collaboration between farmers is crucial for the survival of howling cranes and other wetland-dependent water bird species, of which almost a third of which falls. The number of water birds (think of ducks and geese) has crashed by 20 percent since 2014, and long -legged wading Shorebirds such as Sandpipers have suffered steep population losses. Conservation-oriented biologists, non-profit organizations, government agencies and farmers themselves strengthen efforts to ensure that every species survives and thrives. With federal support in the visor of the Trump government, their work is more important (and threatened) than ever.
Their collaborations, whether they are domestic or internationally, are very specific, because different regions support different types of agriculture – grasslands, or deep or shallow wetlands, for example preference given to different species of birds. The key to the efforts is to make it financially worthwhile for farmers to keep – or to tweak – practices to meet bird food and habitat needs.
Traditional river crayfish-and-rice farms in Louisiana, as well as in Gentz's corner of Texas, simulating natural freshwater wetlands that are lost due to the penetration of salt water due to the sea level rise. Rice grows in fields that are flooded to keep weeds low; Fields are drained for the harvest by autumn. They are then again entangled to cover langests bent in the mud; These are harvested in early spring – and the cycle starts again.
The second floods coincides with autumn migration – a genetic and learned behavior that determines where birds fly and when – and it attracts a huge number of egrets, herons, bitters and storks that dine on the shellfish and on tadpoles, fish and insects in the water.
On a biodiverse river crayfish and rice farm: “You can see 30, 40, 50 species of birds, amphibians, reptiles,” says Elia Wojohn, a Shorebird Conservation biologist at non-profit Manomet Conservation Sciences in Massachusetts. If farmers, on the other hand, switch to less water -intensive corn and soybean production in response to climate pressure, “you see raccoons, deer, crows, that's it.” Wojohn often trusts word of mouth to crochet farmers for conservation; They learned to spot their large, curved bills, was “fired” about them and all his farmer's friends told. Such a farmer-to-far dialog is how you change things between this sometimes change-alternal group, says Wojohn.
In the Mississippi Delta and in California, where rice is generally grown without crustaceans, nature conservation organizations such as Ducks Unlimited have stimulated the income of the farmers for a long time and they continue to be strength by helping them be paid to flood pitches in the winter for hunters. This attracts wintering ducks and geese – regards an extra “crop” – that remaining rice and pond plants that have been transferred; The birds also help to dissolve rice stalks, so that farmers don't have to remove them. The goal of Ducks Unlimited is simple, says director of Conservation Innovation Scott Manley: Keep Rice Farmers Farming Rice. This is especially important because a changing climate makes it more difficult. 2024 saw a huge push, with the organization retaining 1 million hectares for water birds.
Some strategies can be counterproductive. In the center of New York, where decreasing winter ice has seen the water birds hang past their usual migration times, nature managers and land confidence buy less productive agricultural land to plant with indigenous grasses; These give migrating fuel to ducks if not much else grows. But there is potential to produce too many birds for the country that is available in their breeding areas, says Andrew Dixon, Director of Science and Nature Conservation at the Mohamed Bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Fund in Abu Dhabi, and co -author of an article about the Genetics of Dieren. This can damage ecosystems that are meant to serve them.
Conservation efforts about continents and thousands of kilometers have recently emerged. They try to protect Buff-Breasted Sandpipers. While they migrate 18,000 miles to and from the high North Pole area where they nest, the birds experience extreme hunger – hyperfagia – who force them to devour insects in short grasses where the insects spread. But many stops along the bird return route are threatened. There are water shortages that influence agriculture in Texas, where the birds forage on grass farms; grassland loss and relegation in Paraguay; And in Colombia the conversion of feed crops to exotic grasses and rice fields that these birds cannot use.
Conservationists say that it is crucial to protect the habitat for 'buffers' everywhere on their route, and to ensure that the winters spend these small Shorebirds around the Uruguay coastal laggunes are a foodtiesta. To this end, Manomet Conserving Specialist Joaquín Aldabe, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture of Uruguay, has so far learned 40 local farmers how to improve their grazing methods. Rotational moving of the animals from grassland to grassland means that grasses remain the right length for insects to flourish.
There are no easy solutions in the North -American northwest, where the preservation of birds is in a crisis. Extreme drought ensures that breeding grounds, counterfeit places and migration -stop places disappear. It also endangers the livelihood of farmers, who feel the urge to sell land to developers. From southern oregon to central California, nature conservation consensus have offered monetary stimuli for water-blasted grain farmers to leave eye cladding to improve the chances of survival for the 1 billion birds that pass every year, and for ranchers to flood unused meadows.
A treacherous stage of the northwestern migration route is the dried -out Klamath basin of Oregon and California. In recent years: “We did not see any migrating birds. I mean, the peak count was zero,” says John Vradenburg, supervisory biologist of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. He and countless private, public and indigenous partners work on more water for the human and Aviaire residents of the Bassin, because multi -year Wetlands are seasoning wetlands, seasonal Wetlands transfer to temporary wetlands, and temporary laws change to ardic countries.
The downing of four powerful dams and one dike has stretched the water of the Klamath river over the landscape, made new streams and farm fields connected to long-separated Wetlands. But getting the best out of this requires extensive thinking. Wetland-Restoration-Nu threatened by loss of financing by the current administration-ZOU drought-connected farmers help by keeping the water tables high. But what if farmers can also receive extra money for their company via eco-credits, related to carbon credits, for the work that those wetlands do to filter the farming of the farm? And what if Wetlands could function as aquaculture incubators for youth fish before they store rivers? Klamath tribes are invested in repairing endangered C'Appen and Koptu Sucker Fish, and this can help them achieve that goal.
As the traditional resting and nesting spots of birds become inhospitable, a more sobering question of whether improvements can happen quickly enough. The sizzling pace of climate change gives the species little chance of adapting, although some change their behavior. This means that the work of nature conservationists to find and secure adequate, supportive agricultural land and rankeland, because the birds are looking for new routes, has become a sprint over time.
This story originally appeared in Knipable Magazine.
