Additional  OBAR Initiatives

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The Carolinian Forest Birds project is an innovative undertaking involving a suite of Vulnerable, Threatened and Endangered (VTE) birds which breed in forest habitats within the Carolinian Life Zone in southern Ontario.  In developing the "Preliminary Conservation Action Plan for Vulnerable, Threatened and Endangered Birds in the Carolinian Forests of Southern Ontario: Discussion Document", we made efforts to identify and assign conservation priorities and recommend actions to all known forest blocks of significance to VTE birds within the province's Carolinian life zone, based on years of data collected by a variety of biological surveys, naturalist groups and volunteers.  The plan identifies 130 known sites with conservation priority for VTE birds, and provides a mix of 16 recommended conservation actions to support them. The plan also provides guidelines to identify and assess the few significant sites that haven't yet been identified. 

The plan's emphasis is on action, and as such it provides a practical set of initiatives for the protection and restoration of these key sites.  Partnerships between a number of public and private agencies and landowners, as well as grass-roots volunteerism supported by professionals, hold the key to the plan's success, and ultimately to the long-term survival of these important forest blocks and the valuable species they contain. 

Henslow's Sparrows Recovery Initiatives 
 

Populations of grassland bird species have been generally identified as declining in eastern North America.  Of these, the Henslow's Sparrow has suffered the most widespread decline and it has been officially listed as an Endangered Species in Canada and Ontario.  OBAR is investigating grasslands restoration posssibilities in Prince Edward County on the northeast shore of Lake Ontario.  The surveys, development and implementation of management plans and site restoration are to be used to promote the creation of similar projects in the region and elsewhere in Ontario, in order to achieve the Henslow's Sparrow Recovery Plan target of securing 1000 ha of suitable habitat for this species in the Ontario. 

For more information contact:
The Volunteer Projects Biologist
Bird Studies Canada
P.O. Box 160, Port Rowan, ON N0E 1M0
Phone: 1-519-586-3531 Fax: 1-519-586-3532
Email: dbadzinski@bsc-eoc.org

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