Montane meadows play a unique and crucial role in the ecology of Sierra birds. A substantial subset of Sierra species is dependent on meadows for breeding habitat, and the population density of many forest-inhabiting species is often highest at meadow edges. Perhaps even more importantly, montane meadows serve as critical molting and pre-migration staging areas for dispersing birds (particularly juveniles) of a broad array of species, some of which do not actually breed anywhere near the meadows.

Historic and current human activities (most notably livestock grazing, but also water management, recreational activities, and logging practices) have compromised the viability of meadow habitat throughout much of the Sierra. Two of California's endangered bird species, Willow Flycatcher and Great Gray Owl, depend critically on montane meadows, and analyses of North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data indicate that several additional meadow-affiliated species, including Belted Kingfisher, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Swainson's Thrush, American Robin, Orange-crowned Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow, also exhibit declining long-term population trends in the Sierra Nevada physiographic province.

The Institute for Bird Populations has initiated a proactive, Sierra-wide effort to inventory and preserve the Sierra's most critical montane meadows and the birds that depend on them. We have developed a rapid assessment protocol to quickly and inexpensively survey birds and their habitats at montane meadows. Our rapid assessment protocol involves mist-netting, point counts, and an area search, along with vegetation, hydrology, and use-impact surveys.

Between 1998 and 2000 we surveyed 208 meadows throughout Stanislaus, Sierra, and Sequoia National Forests, as well as Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks.

IBP staff biologist Bob Wilkerson extracts birds from a mist-net at Upper Bubbs Creek Meadow, Sequoia National Park.

We recently collaborated with Audubon-California to designate the fifteen or so most important meadows in each national park or national forest as a Southern Sierra Meadows Important Bird Area. We are now working with federal land managers to refine our designations, and then develop management prescriptions that will insure the maintenance and/or restoration of high-quality bird habitat at these sites.

The Sierra Meadow Important Bird Area project, which has been explicitly endorsed by Audubon-California and the Western Working Group of Partners in Flight, incorporates three important aspects of safeguarding Sierra bird populations:

• Inventory-- The baseline information we have collected on bird communities and meadow condition is of great value to land managers at parks and forests throughout the Sierra.
• Research-- Analyses of our meadow survey results are providing valuable insight into the effects of vegetation, physiographic characteristics, and land management practices on meadow bird communities. These insights will ultimately help in the formulation of future management prescriptions, throughout the Sierra and beyond.
• Conservation-- The Important Bird Area designation, along with the management prescriptions we are producing in collaboration with the appropriate land managers, establishes a clear mechanism whereby our inventory and research findings can be translated into specific conservation actions in specific locations.

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Peer-reviewed publications resulting from this work:

Siegel, R. B., R. L. Wilkerson, and D. F. DeSante. 2003. A rapid, inexpensive field protocol for assessing the importance of montane meadows to breeding and post-breeding birds, and a test of the late season protocol. In California Riparian Systems: Processes and Floodplains Management, Ecology, and Restoration (P. M. Faber, ed.). 2001 Riparian Habitat and Floodplains Conference Proceedings, Riparian Habitat Joint Venture, Sacramento, CA.

Siegel, R. B., D. F. DeSante, and M. P. Nott. 2001. Using point counts to establish conservation priorities: how many visits are optimal? Journal of Field Ornithology 72:228-235.

For more information, please contact Rodney Siegel.