The numbers of Brewer's sparrows are on the rise in the Warner Mountain area in Southern Oregon. That's thanks to efforts to remove invading conifer trees to bring back threatened sage grouse through a project called the Sage Grouse Initiative.
Side benefit? That restoration work boosted other birds, too. Brewer's sparrow populations increased by 55 percent; green-tailed towhee, another songbird, increased by 81 percent.
"We saw significant increases in the numbers of sagebrush-dependent species that we are really concerned about," said Jeremy Maestas is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources and Conservation Service.
Hundreds of years of fire suppression and cattle grazing have led to the spread of conifer species into sage brush habitat. More than 350 species depend on sage brush habitat. Songbird populations can be an indicator of how healthy the ecosystem is overall.
"All these species are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Those species tell us whether or not there's a problem in the ecosystem," said Maestas.
"So when they're increasing we feel better about the fact that our sage brush ecosystems can provide clean water, abundant forage and all the watershed functions that we desire and all the ecosystem services that we need as a society."
Jacob Spendelow
/A green-tailed towhee songbird.
Jacob Spendelow
/A Brewer's Sparrow songbird.
Todd Forbes
/Before the habitat restoration work South Warner Mountain Project area near Adel, Oregon.
Todd Forbes
/The landscape after the habitat restoration work in the South Warner Mountain Project area near Adel, Oregon.
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting
