Black Rail Conservation Plan The ACJV published the Black Rail Conservation Plan in July 2020. This is the first ever comprehensive plan to conserve Black Rails. The plan lays out six priority strategies needed to achieve a sustainable population of 2,500 breeding pairs of Black Rails. Of particular note is that the plan focuses most [...]
The goal of Joint Venture planning efforts is to inform and catalyze conservation on the ground. With our partners, we are actively pursuing opportunities to accelerate implementation projects that address the highest priority plan objectives at a regional scale. Over the past year, our plans have helped to bring in several large grants. The past two [...]
Saltmarsh Sparrow Plan The ACJV published its Saltmarsh Sparrow Conservation Plan in September 2020. This plan builds upon the strategies developed in the Salt Marsh Bird Conservation Plan. Nearly all of the strategies from that plan are included in the Saltmarsh Sparrow Plan in addition to several new strategies that are specific to Saltmarsh Sparrow [...]
American Black Duck Conservation Plan The American Black Duck was once the most abundant dabbling duck in eastern North America. Black duck populations began declining steadily in the 1950s and reached an all-time low by the 1980s, having lost more than half of their historical population. Populations have stabilized since then, but they remain below [...]
From the Coordinator ACJV Coordinator, Aimee Weldon The last year has been full of challenges for everyone, both personally and professionally. We have had to learn new ways to teach our children, buy groceries, and plan a meeting. While we have all had low days, it’s the high days and our many incredible [...]
Impoundment and High Marsh Mapping Projects Will Help Identify New Black Rail Habitat Opportunities Close up of Black Rail habitat. Craig Watson Black Rails require specific habitat conditions that include very shallow water and dense vegetation. These conditions are found in the highest and driest portion of the salt marsh (‘high marsh’) and [...]
ACJV Workshop Charts a Path Forward for Black Rails Black Rail. Sergio Bitran In late October, partners from across the Joint Venture convened in Charleston, South Carolina, to begin developing the first components of the ACJV Black Rail Conservation Action Plan. The Plan will lay out a series of high-priority actions needed to [...]
BLRA Pilot Projects Black Rail. Bob Gress Hiding deep in the marsh, inaccessible to even the most dedicated birders and researchers, Black Rails have kept much of their ecology a secret for centuries. Now the species is facing alarming declines and solutions are urgently needed to stabilize the population. Given how little is [...]
Black Rail Adaptive Management Project The ACJV, in partnership with USGS, recently secured a 3-year grant to develop an Adaptive Management (AM) Framework for Black Rail. This project was born out of the urgent need to learn quickly about which management strategies work better than others at creating suitable habitat for Black Rail. Through the [...]
Habitat Tool Prioritizes Saltmarsh Sparrow Habitat The ACJV has adopted a long-term population objective of sustaining 25,000 breeding Saltmarsh Sparrows. To achieve this objective, we must first identify where the highest-priority habitat exists to support the population. To this end, the Saltmarsh Sparrow Working Group has developed a Habitat Prioritization Tool to identify the most [...]
