PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #21: Conservation of Biodiversity: Human landscapes, reserve design. Presiding: C. Meine.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Madison Ballroom D.
Effects of landowner attitudes and behaviors on breeding birds in a dynamic landscape.
Lepczyk, Christopher1, Mertig, Angela1, Liu, Jianguo1, 1
ABSTRACT- Although the majority of land in the United States is privately owned, the effects of landowner attitudes, actions, and behaviors on breeding birds are largely unknown. To investigate how human factors influence breeding birds, we carried out a survey of all private landowners (n = 1694) along three breeding bird survey (BBS) routes in a human dominated landscape that is experiencing rapid change. Our survey was designed to ascertain how much supplemental food and shelter landowners provided for birds, how vegetation was modified specifically for birds, number of cats allowed outside access, landowners' perceptions of birds, activities carried out on the land, specific types of landcover on the property and how landowners make use of it, and what landowners are likely to do with their land in the future. Of the 969 landowner responses (58.6% response rate), 65% fed birds, 46% had bird houses, 54% planted or maintained vegetation for birds, and 26% owned cats that were allowed access to the outside, which commonly depredated house sparrows, blue jays, and American robins. The majority of landowners lived in developing rural (51%) and rural (28%) areas and approximately 32% expected to sell or develop their land in the next five years. These results indicate that private landowners exert strong direct and indirect effects on both the landscape and the breeding birds.
KEY WORDS: BBS, landowners, birds, landscape