Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT) staff conducting a prescribed burn at a project site. Photo credit: ACT
“Birds are one of the best tools that we have for communicating with landowners about the benefits of prescribed fire,” notes Peter Kleinhenz, Executive Director of Aiken Land Conservancy. Some bird species, including Northern Bobwhite and Bachman’s Sparrow, depend on periodic fires to maintain their preferred open woodland habitats. Frequent, mild burns were once a natural occurrence in pine forests of the Southeastern U.S., but have become less frequent due to human interventions such as federal and state fire suppression practices that started in the early 1900s. As a result, populations of many fire-adapted bird species have been declining over the past several decades.
Burning for Birds, a Conservation Collaborative of the Cornell Lab’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative, is working to reverse the decline of these species with habitat management practices that include prescribed fire and educational outreach, using eBird to monitor the success of their efforts.
Burning for Birds was born out of a partnership which began in 2020 between Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, Alachua Conservation Trust, and Conservation Florida, and has since expanded to include several more land trusts and conservation organizations in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, including Aiken Land Conservancy, Georgia Conservancy, Putnam Land Conservancy, the North Florida Prescribed Burn Association, Apalachee Audubon Society, Alachua Audubon Society, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and The Longleaf Alliance. The Conservation Collaborative seeks to engage private landowners with ecologically beneficial prescribed fire in ways that bring maximum benefit to fire-adapted—and declining—bird species of the Southeast.
Land trusts are working with local partners, often Audubon groups or students from local universities, to show landowners the results of prescribed fire by monitoring with pre- and post-fire eBird surveys to assess how these pine communities change over time.
According to Heather Obara, Associate Director of Alachua Conservation Trust, these monitoring trips are not only educational for the landowner but also prime opportunities to teach the next generation of conservationists how to collect scientific data and demonstrate how eBird can help inform and improve ecological and adaptive management strategies over time.
As staff and volunteers monitor for target fire-adapted bird species identified by the collaborative, they are also noting any species listed in their organization’s respective State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP). Documenting state-listed bird species is especially useful for reference when applying for funding for other conservation activities in the region, notes Kleinhenz.
Members of Burning for Birds collect bird data using both eBird and EpiCollect, which allows the partners to gather and access the data through a central database. Both apps are used simultaneously when monitoring, because EpiCollect allows for more detailed comparisons between specific sites on larger properties, while eBird offers a user-friendly way to view data at a property scale while ensuring that the data ends up in the hands of ornithologists and other conservation professionals.
The data helps tell part of the story, but Burning for Birds’ educational outreach is another important aspect of the collaborative’s work. “It’s not just about putting prescribed fire on the landscape,” says Holly Guthrie, Land Conservancy Office Manager at Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy. “We’re getting these new birders out there, and they’re learning about fire-adapted bird species, why prescribed fire is important, and why these birds need it—but they’re also learning about bird conservation as a whole and the power of birds thanks to eBird,” she says.
Explore the project pages on the Burning for Birds website to read more about the benefits of prescribed fire, learn more about bird species listed in your State Wildlife Action Plan, and record birds on your property or local public lands to help track your bird community by submitting your observations on eBird.
Learn more about the Conservation Collaborative by exploring an interactive StoryMap, or read more about Burning for Birds on the Cornell Lab’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative website.