Picking Up the Pace for Prairie Potholes

Photo: Dan Casey

A report by the Government Accountability Office has found that, at the current pace of acquisitions, it could take approximately 150 years to reach the 12 million-acre goal for conserving migratory bird habitat in the Prairie Potholes Region set by the Prairie Potholes Joint Venture. The report underscores the need to quickly ramp up conservation efforts in a region of critical importance to millions of birds.

The Prairie Pothole Region, which covers millions of acres in the upper Midwest and Canada, is an abundant habitat for migratory birds because of its millions of small, seasonal wetlands that dot the landscape, gouged out by glaciers in ice ages past. It is the interspersion of grassland and wetland that makes the region home to an amazing array of birds, from grassland passerines such as Baird’s Sparrow and Sprague’s Pipit, to the millions of waterfowl, marsh, and shorebirds such as Green-winged Teal, Redhead and Canvasback that nest in or pass through during migration.

Since the late 1950s, FWS has permanently protected, through both acquisition and easement, about 3 million of the 64 million acres of the area within the United States, with a goal to protect roughly 12 million more acres. FWS has begun to use sophisticated biological, statistical, and spatial models to target the areas with the greatest potential to sustain breeding duck and other wetland- and grassland-dependent bird populations.

Photo: Dan Casey

Unfortunately, increased demand for agricultural products such as biofuels has driven land and commodity prices up, and land that provides valuable bird habitat today is likely to be converted for other uses in the next few decades. While the rate of land protection could be accelerated by targeting lower cost sections within high-priority habitat areas, additional funds need to be made available if the land is to be protected while it is still relatively affordable and high-quality habitat still exist.

The Government Accountability Office recommends several options requiring Congressional action that would help to increase resources for the permanent protection of Prairie Pothole habitat. Increasing the cost of the Federal Duck Stamp, which has been fixed at $15 per stamp since 1991, is one option. House of Representatives bill H.R. 2735, would increase the price of the stamp to $20 through 2010, and to $25 thereafter. Another option is to provide additional resources from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This source of funding has been used only minimally in the Prairie Potholes Region, with less than $200,000 spent annually there in the last two years.