Opportunities and challenges to waterfowl habitat conservation on private land / William L. Hohman, Eric B. Lindstrom, Benjamin S. Rashford, and James H. Devries.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 398-406).

The future of North American waterfowl populations is inseparably tied to
management of private land in the United States (U.S.) and Canada. Private land
ownership in major waterfowl habitat regions such as the Northern Great Plains,
Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Gulf Coast and California’s Central Valley generally
exceeds 90%, with agriculture being the dominant land-use in these regions. Planning
and implementing avian conservation on private land in a strategic manner is
complicated by a wide array of social, economic, political, administrative and
scientific-technical issues. Prominent among these challenges are changing economicdrivers
influencing land-use decisions, integration of bird conservation objectives at
various scales, reconciling differences in wildlife habitat objectives between bird
conservationists and land-users, administrative impediments to conservation planning
and implementation, technology and scientific information gaps, and inadequate
personnel capacity and financial constraints to effectively plan and deliver
conservation. Given these unprecedented challenges to waterfowl habitat
conservation, the need for effective public-private partnerships and collaboration has
never been greater. With the goal of advancing collaborative waterfowl conservation
on private land, the broad goals of this paper are to: (1) increase stakeholder
awareness of opportunities and challenges to waterfowl habitat conservation on
private land, and (2) showcase examples of collaborative efforts that have successfully
addressed these challenges. To accomplish these goals this paper is organised into
three sections: (1) importance of agricultural policy to private land conservation, (2)
habitat potential on agricultural working land, and (3) strategic approaches to
waterfowl habitat conservation. U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation
programmes authorised through the Conservation Title of the 1985 Food Security Act (hereafter, Farm Bill) and subsequent farm bills have provided unequalled
potential for waterfowl habitat conservation on private land. Passage of the 2014
Farm Bill provides unique opportunities and alternative approaches to promote
working land conservation strategies that are economically profitable and wildlifefriendly.
However, reductions in private land conservation funding will require more
effective targeting to maximise resource benefits. For example, in addition to
conserving and restoring traditional habitats, we must work collaboratively to identify
and promote working agricultural systems that are waterfowl-friendly and provide
environmental services in addition to the production of food and fibre. Cultivation of
rice Oryza sativa and winter cereals described below potentially represent two such
situations. For over a quarter of a century the North American Waterfowl
Management Plan (NAWMP) has served as a transformative model of partnershipbased,
landscape-scale conservation (DOI & EC 1986). Whereas the original plan and
subsequent updates established abundant waterfowl populations as the plan’s ultimate
goal, the 2012 NAWMP revision seeks a formal integration of these objectives with
societal needs and desires (DOI et al. 2012). The current plan recognises the critical
importance of private working land; however, details are lacking, especially with
respect to strategic targeting of conservation on private land. For example, the
development of truly strategic plans to target waterfowl conservation on private land
will require estimates of the benefits of various conservation alternatives,
conservation costs, and the threat of habitat loss or conversion. We suggest
development of spatially explicit models that inform landowners and managers at the
field-level about the cost effectiveness of conservation and land-use options is
critically needed.