Over the past 10 years, a number of state and federal agencies have identified birds of open lands and grasslands as species of conservation concern because of their widely declining populations. Many breeding bird species of grasslands and open lands also benefit from a variery of agricultural land uses. In the Northeast, the decline of agriculture and conversion of grasslands to other habitats have contributed to documented declines of birds that require grasslands for nesting. Because of my past research related to grassland bird ecology and conservation, I continue to serve as an advisor to state and federal agencies engaged in conservation of grassland birds and their habitats.

The 2002 Farm Bill provided for implementation of a Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) to provide incentives to farmers for conservation of grassland habitats. One of the objectives of this program is to provide habitats suitable for nesting of native grassland bird species, many of which have decining populations throughout all or a significant portion of their geographic ranges in the United States.

I am serving as scientific and technical advisor to the USDA/NRCS Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) Subcommittee of the New York State Technical Committee, and also serve as a scientific and technical advisor to the Schuyler County Cooperative Extension Program "Grassland Bird Pasture Use Inventory" and as scientific and technical advisor to the Finger Lakes National Forest. I also serve as a scientific advisor to the NYS Breeding Bird Atlas Steering Committee.

I have written and submitted a series of breeding bird species accounts about grassland birds to the "Second Atlas of NY Breeding Birds", to be published by Cornell Univerity Press in 2008. I also am co-authoring a chapter (with Peter L. Marks)for the Atlas on the effects of land-use change on New York breeding birds over the past 20 years. Four thousand copies of the Second Atlas will be published for sale in NY and throughout the US and Canada.

biodiversity conservation

personal funds

• Christopher Zimmer (USDA/Forest Service)
• John Ozard (NYSDEC)
• Michael Murphy (NYSDEC)
• Jeffrey K. Keller (Habitats by Design)
• James Ochterski (Cornell Cooperative Extension (Schuyler County))
• Michael Townsend (USDA/NRCS)
• Peter L. Marks (Cornell University)