Conservation on Farmlands

After harvest, leave crop residue on the soil surface. This detritus supports insects that are crucial to the diets of migrating birds and provides cover during inclement weather.
Use biological controls on crop pests. Integrated pest management systems that achieve this end include establishing permanent vegetative cover on steep hillsides, reducing the frequency and intensity of tillage, and rotating crops over several years. These techniques reduce the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizers and ensure that only the target pest insects are destroyed.
Postpone spring mowing as long as possible; avoid mowing at night, and make intervals between mowing as long as possible to give birds the best chance for successful nesting.
Use inorganic fertilizers sparingly: base use on accurate soil requirements.
Do not mow fencerows and other uncultivated areas, or spray them with pesticides. Try to carry out field operations in these areas only before and after nesting season.
Leave wooded corridors of shrubs and standing trees between fields.

Preserve uncultivated areas and allow them to develop into a variety of vegetative types. Areas between crop fields are helpful to migratory birds. Also, they can help reduce soil erosion.
Use farmland in a wide variety of ways.
Maintain grassy strips within cultivated fields to provide nesting and feeding areas for grassland birds.
Preserve wetlands by buffering them with zones of natural vegetation.

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