Black Duck Decision Support Tool Helps Target Conservation Action 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, [...]
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Includes Black Duck Priorities in Chesapeake Bay Strategic Plan The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) partnered with the ACJV to identify restoration and enhancement priorities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that meet both water quality and American Black Duck habitat goals. Through the Black Duck Decision Support Tool, the [...]
Salt Marsh Bird Conservation Business Plan for the Atlantic Coast At a 2014 Partners in Flight meeting in Virginia Beach, a group of bird conservation partners from the Atlantic and Gulf coast began to develop a conservation business plan for tidal marsh birds. That planning process identified a suite of highest-priority bird species, which included [...]
Eastern Black Rail Listing Update In October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced their proposal to list the Eastern Black Rail subspecies as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). After a review of the best available information, the Service determined the subspecies meets the definition of threatened because it is likely to [...]
Saltmarsh Sparrow in the New York Times Saltmarsh Sparrows nest in high marsh grasses just above the mean high tide line. They have naturally adapted to occasional flooding events; eggs can survive short periods of inundation and young birds often climb to safety in the grass above the nest. However, more than a foot of [...]
At the 2014 Northeast & Southeast Partners in Flight meeting in Virginia Beach, a group of partners from the Atlantic and Gulf coast began to develop a conservation business plan (CBP) for tidal marsh birds. Led by the researchers involved in the Saltmarsh Habitat Avian Research Program (SHARP), a draft plan was partially completed, which [...]
While flying above the Atlantic Ocean, one of the members of the joint Atlantis-International Space Station crews took this photo of the Delmarva Peninsula from the orbiting complex on July 16, 2011. NASA This August ACJV staff and partners secured a $75k grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT) to increase and accelerate [...]
The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) developed a Human Dimensions information to explain the what, why, and how behind the human dimensions (HD) of bird conservation. It features a definition of HD, reasons for why HD information is crucial to conserving birds, and examples of bird conservation questions that HD can answer. The document [...]
Focused Conservation: A Note from ACJV Coordinator, Aimee Weldon As a Joint Venture, our goal is to move the needle on bird conservation through the work of our partnership. The ACJV is large – spanning the 17 states and territories from Maine to Puerto Rico – and the list of birds and habitats in need [...]
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 [...]