More than two-thirds of the land area in the United States is privately owned, with 914 million acres in farms or ranches and approximately 300 million acres in private forest. These working lands, which represent much of the country’s remaining open space and habitat, are vitally important to the conservation of soil, water, and fish and wildlife resources.

This Subcommittee was formed to help state and federal land management agencies, as well as non-government conservation organizations, better interact with private landowners to facilitate bird conservation on these lands.  We work with partners to identify opportunities to integrate bird conservation priorities into private lands conservation efforts. We work in many different arenas, such as assisting the U.S. Department of Agriculture in implementing Farm Bill conservation programs to maximize benefits for a variety of birds across the country and providing information and resources to land trusts about bird habitat conservation.

Projects, Products, and Resources

Membership

Todd Fearer, Co-chair
Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (JV)

Additional Members: Sara Barker – Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Andy Bishop – Rainwater Basin JV, Wilhelmina Bratton – USFS State and Private Forestry, Michael Crowder – National Association of Conservation Districts, Ashley Dayer – VA Tech, Danielle Flynn – NRCS, Geoff Geupel – Point Blue Conservation Sciences, Ashley Gramza – Arkansas Game and Fish, Julie Grogan-Brown – Audubon, Alicia Hardin – Nebraska Game and Fish/AFWA Migratory Shore and Upland Gamebird Working Group Chair, Monica Iglecia – Manomet, Sherrie Ivanov – FSA, Amy Johnson – Smithsonian, Keith McKnight – Lower Mississippi Valley JV, Nicole Michael – Audubon, Judith Scarl – NABCI/AFWA, NABCI Coordinator, Dave Smith – Intermountain West JV, Scott Taylor – Pheasants Forever, Kelly VanBeek – USFWS, Tammy VerCauteren – Bird Conservancy of the Rockies