The Black Rail (BLRA) is a highly secretive marsh bird believed by researchers to be one of the most endangered birds along the Atlantic Coast. The species once occupied coastal areas from Texas to Massachusetts but has experienced steep annual declines across their breeding range since the 1990s. Conservative estimates of Black Rail populations [...]
Craig Watson, ACJV Assistant Coordinator and Piping Plover Finder! For the second winter Craig Watson, ACJV Assistant Coordinator and Caleb Spiegel USFWS Region 5 Division of Migratory Birds, coordinated and carried out extensive surveys for Piping Plover and other shorebirds in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). Craig and Caleb partnered with [...]
In 2016 the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) expanded its successful ‘Working Lands for Wildlife” (WLFW) program from its initial seven species nationwide, to include eleven new projects. WLFW projects focus on declining species that have needs compatible with agricultural practices and rural land management and that can benefit from conservation on private [...]
North American Wetlands Conservation Act and National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grants Conserve Saltmarsh Habitat in the ACJV Special consideration was given to NAWCA proposals that considered ACJV focal species like the Black Rail. Michael Gray 2016 was another highly successful year for ACJV partners to conserve wetlands through the USFWS’s North American Wetlands [...]
Setting a Population Objective for Saltmarsh Sparrow Drives Coordinated Conservation For each of our flagship species, we aim to create population objectives tied to habitat objectives. Having such objectives makes it easier for partners to understand their piece of the conservation equation and to coordinate efforts and measure success against a common goal. In the [...]
The ACJV and partners (Black Duck Joint Venture [BDJV], Ducks Unlimited [DU] and University of Massachusetts) with funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust recently completed a Decision Support Tool (DST) to help guide conservation efforts for Black Duck. The DST identifies watersheds that do not have enough food energy to support population goals of Black [...]
ACJV Boosts Staff Capacity with USFWS Fellows Over the summer of 2016, the ACJV took advantage of the relatively new “Directorate Fellows Program” (DFP), which offers students a paid internship with the USFWS for eleven weeks to work on specific projects. Melissa Althouse, a graduate student at SUNY-ESF who was about to finish her [...]
Working with Ducks Unlimited, the Black Duck Joint Venture, universities, and state wildlife agencies, the ACJV has mapped the best places to protect, restore, and enhance habitat to support Black Duck population goals in Chesapeake Bay. Read the full report.
Did you know that the only endemic breeding bird species (i.e., found nowhere else on earth!) in the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture has declined by 9% per year for more than a decade? Find out more about the plight of Saltmarsh Sparrow and other tidal marsh birds by checking out the archived version of last [...]
The North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) Grant The NAWCA grant program awarded more than $12.3M in funds to ACJV partners this year. Those awards will conserve about 55,000 acres of habitat throughout the Atlantic Coast area. In addition to the three Standard ($1M) grants awarded last fall in North and South Carolina, the second [...]