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Solar Metropolis, Kans. — The 6,780-acre Alexander Ranch in south-central Kansas, owned and operated by Brian Alexander, is a recipient of the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly habitat designation from the Nationwide Audubon Society. The ranch offers grassland habitat for one of many remaining populations of Lesser Prairie-Rooster, an imperiled species just lately listed as federally threatened in Kansas.
Alexander enrolled his working ranch within the Audubon Conservation Ranching program, a wildlife habitat effort working to stabilize declining grassland hen populations. His property lies inside the Purple Hills area, an ecologically important and largely intact panorama of mixed-grass prairie. As an Audubon Licensed bird-friendly habitat, Alexander is catering his grassland administration to enhance habitat circumstances primarily for the Lesser Prairie-Rooster and Northern Bobwhite. Lesser Prairie-Rooster populations are separated right into a pair of distinct inhabitants segments. South-central to western Kansas populations lie inside the Northern Distinct Inhabitants Phase, formally listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in November.
Alexander says the concentrate on a pair of upland species carries advantages to many different birds. “These are umbrella species, so whereas they might get the eye, they’re flagship representatives of our total grassland neighborhood.” Different hen beneficiaries from this administration method embody the Dickcissel, Grasshopper Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrike, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and Upland Sandpiper.
By by no means grazing greater than half of a pasture, Alexander manages his herd in a manner that at all times leaves standing cowl for birds and different wildlife. The grazing can also be good in the long term, because the herd disturbance helps replenish the realm’s soils, promotes the expansion of recent plant species, and ends in completely different habitat buildings for an assortment of birds and different wildlife. “The perfect habitat employees on the Alexander Ranch have hooves, stated Chris Wilson, Audubon Conservation Ranching program director, “Managed rotational grazing is the important thing to sustaining the open, numerous habitat the place Lesser Prairie-Chickens can thrive,” he stated.
By assembly all Audubon Conservation Ranching program necessities – third-party verified – beef produced on the ranch can carry the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly seal. This bundle label acknowledges product origin as lands managed for birds and biodiversity.
For extra details about Audubon Conservation Ranching in Kansas, contact Chris Wilson at 816-824-9691.
About Audubon Conservation Ranching
A wildlife habitat initiative of the Nationwide Audubon Society with a novel market entrance, Audubon Conservation Ranching’s objective is to stabilize declining grassland hen populations in partnership with ranchers – on whose land 95 % of grassland birds reside. Audubon Conservation Ranching’s enrollment consists of over 100 ranches, overlaying over 3.5 million acres which have earned standing as Audubon Licensed bird-friendly land. Incentivizing this habitat work for birds and biodiversity are shoppers with an urge for food for conservation, who help it by buying merchandise grazed on these lands. Buyers see a particular bundle designation – the Audubon Licensed bird-friendly seal – that units these merchandise aside. For extra data, go to Audubon.org/ranching.
About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society protects birds and the locations they want, in the present day, and tomorrow, all through the Americas utilizing science, advocacy, training, and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon’s state applications, nature facilities, chapters, and companions have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches thousands and thousands of individuals every year to tell, encourage, and unite numerous communities in conservation motion. Since 1905, Audubon’s imaginative and prescient has been a world through which folks and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation group. Be taught extra at www.audubon.org and @audubonsociety.
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