Audubon Workshop Benefits Bird Habitat

Audubon New York organized a workshop last month to show 30 woodlot and forest owners and managers in the Tug Hill region of northern New York State how to have positive impact on bird and other wildlife habitat by embracing sustainable forest management practices.

Tug Hill, one of the largest tracts of forest left in New York State, provides critical habitat for a great diversity of bird species, including Canada warbler, American woodcock and ruffed grouse. The workshop, funded in part by an SFI conservation grant, the New York SFI Implementation Committee and SFI program participants, brought together landowners and experts on birds, other wildlife and forest management.

Other workshop sponsors included the Empire State Forest Products Association, Cornell University Human Dimensions Research Unit, Molpus Timberland Management, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Tug Hill Commission, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust, and The Nature Conservancy.

The workshop included speakers from Cornell University, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust who discussed recent declines in bird populations in the region, the economic benefits of timber management, and the resources and incentives available to landowners, such as conservation easements, who wish to conserve and manage their forest land.

Tug Hill is part of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's designated Northern Forest Legacy Area. Audubon New York has designated about 80,000 acres of Tug Hill Plateau as an Important Bird Area, and about 90% of this area is forested.