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Bird Conservation
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Important Bird Areas
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MONTANA'S IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS PROGRAM
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Here we detail the history of the Montana statewide IBA program. For more information, GIS and Google Earth files, and an easy link to maps of each IBA, go to Montana Audubon's IBA website.The Montana Important Bird Areas program got off to a great start when the first suite of IBAs was identified in January 2002. These sites are spread across the length and breadth of the state and range in size from 53 ha at Safe Harbor Marsh to more than 440,000 ha at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Collectively, they encompass many of the premier tracts of bird habitat in the state, including riparian woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, sagebrush steppe, and burned forests, each of which is a habitat that merits high conservation priority. Federal and state agencies are the primary land managers for all but two of the original IBAs, and many of the sites were receiving some form of protection (e.g., national wildlife refuge, BLM area of critical environmental concern, or state wildlife management area) before they were identified as IBAs.The Montana program is in its second phase of IBA identification, with an emphasis on private and tribal lands. This shift in focus results from the fact that 65% of Montana is privately owned, yet private lands received little consideration in the first round of nominations. In addition, more than three million hectares occur within the boundaries of our seven tribal reservations. These lands also had received little attention. Consequently, in 2003 Montana Audubon began raising funds to inventory birds for IBA nominations in areas that are not dominated by public land.By 2006, these efforts had resulted in new IBAs along the Madison River and Clark Fork River that focused on private lands, and along the Tongue River within the borders of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Each of these sites contains cottonwood gallery forest that supports a high diversity of Neotropical migrants and other birds of conservation priority. Also in 2006 we identified new IBAs at Hebgen Lake to help protect a large congregation of wintering Trumpeter Swans and in the Blackfoot Valley to focus attention on Intermountain sagebrush that supports high numbers of nesting Brewer's Sparrows.In March of 2007, we established new IBAs on the Flathead Indian Reservation at the site of the largest known communal roost of Rough-legged Hawks in the world, and along the Bitterroot River, where the riparian cottonwoods (most of which are privately owned) support good numbers of nesting Bald Eagles, Lewis's Woodpeckers, and Red-naped Sapsuckers.In April 2008, we identified a new IBA that will help focus attention on a prairie wetland complex on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.Also in 2008 we identified five new sagebrush-shrubsteppe IBAs for the protection of the Greater Sage-Grouse and other sage associated bird species. For more information on these new sage IBAs go here.We now have 37 identified IBAs and will continue to evaluate new sites for inclusion into the program over the next few years.
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Lewis's Woodpeckers nest along the Clark Fork River throughout the IBA. Photo by Bob Martinka.
| Name: |
Clark Fork River-Grass Valley |
| State: |
US-MT |
| Counties: |
Missoula
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| Site Status: |
Recognized |
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Semipalmated Sandpipers stop in late summer during southward migration. Photo by Bob Martinka.
The Clark Fork River-Grass Valley IBA encompasses about 35 km of river corridor and adjacent uplands between Missoula and Huson. The site supports a high diversity of birds, including a number of species of conservation priority. Habitats include cottonwood gallery forests, riparian willows, various wetland types, grasslands, woody draws, and agricultural crops and pasture lands. Most of the land within the IBA is privately owned. The IBA is close to Missoula, and birders have been aware of the habitat and wildlife values at this site for many years. Since 2000, Five Valleys Audubon Society has been working with Five Valleys Land Trust to increase awareness within the community about the importance of this area to birds and other wildlife and about its vulnerability to development. Many conservation opportunities exist, ranging from habitat management to establishment of conservation easements. The pressing threats of development and habitat loss give urgent priority to conservation actions.
A brochure that describes the project in more detail is available at http://www.fvamissoula.org/Clark%20Fork%20River%20-%20Grass%20Valley%20IBA.pdfFor IBA map, click here.
More than 230 species of birds have been documented in the area since the late 1990s. Species of Continental concern that nest here include Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, White-throated Swift, Lewis's Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker, and Willow Flycatcher. The number of Lewis’s Woodpeckers that we detected (41 pairs per year for two years) exceeds the threshold needed for the site to qualify as an IBA of Continental significance, and the number of Red-naped Sapsuckers (24 and 34 pairs) approaches the threshold. Given that we surveyed less than half of the riparian cottonwood forest, we estimate that the entire IBA supports at least 80 pairs of Lewis's Woodpeckers and more than 60 pairs of Red-naped Sapsuckers. In addition, significant numbers of transient shorebirds use the area as shown by a 7-year shorebird survey (2000-2006) conducted at the settling ponds on the Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation plant near Frenchtown. The survey documented 28 species; maximum counts on a given day ranged from 81 to 306 in spring and 117 to 1,300 in fall. Sizable numbers of waterfowl also use the IBA year-round. At the Smurfit-Stone plant, 500 to 1,500 ducks and geese occur regularly, with peak numbers exceeding several thousand birds during migration.
Major threats to the area include loss of habitat and open space from an increasing number of residential homes and housing developments, and proposals for commercial activities on private lands within the IBA. Noxious weeds are also a problem throughout the river corridor. Despite these threats, formal identification of the IBA is already making a difference in how the land is being managed and valued by the community. For example, Missoula City and County planners have adopted the IBA boundaries into their respective databases for consideration of proposed development actions, and they alert Five Valleys Audubon of proposed actions and invite comment. Moreover, testimony about the IBA presented at County Commissioner hearings has helped to pass an open space bond and to prevent a large gravel mining operation that had been proposed within the IBA's borders.
| Contact: |
| Amy Cilimburg |
1601 Tamarack St.
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| Missoula, MT 59802 |
| phone: (406) 465-1141 |
| email: amy@mtaudubon.org
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