Sacramento Valley Conservancy

Why Bird Conservation?

“Bird-focused projects can help open doors to other conservation funds,” says Eric Kellegrew, Stewardship Director at Sacramento Valley Conservancy (SVC). According to Kellegrew, SVC’s 2021 small grant project also helped the land trust make connections with local birders, pro bono service providers, local professors, and the natural science community at large.

With a staff of eight, these connections help SVC fulfill its mission, which is to protect and steward natural and working lands in the Sacramento Valley. SVC protects about 18,500 acres in the region, including 13.5 acres of Deer Creek Hills Preserve under easement. The land trust manages the entire 4,600-acre preserve, which is co-owned by SVC, the County of Sacramento, California Department of Parks and Recreation, and Mother Lode Land Trust. A working cattle ranch, portions of Deer Creek Hills Preserve are open to the public on select days throughout the year.

SVC’s small grant project included grassland, riparian, and oak woodland restoration and enhancement at the preserve. Rangeland Monitoring Network protocols developed by Point Blue Conservation Science were also used to evaluate the health of bird, plant, and soil communities and guide future habitat management decisions. Habitat enhancement practices were implemented for three bird species listed in California’s State Wildlife Action Plan: Tricolored Blackbird, Burrowing Owl, and Loggerhead Shrike. Beyond the bird habitat improvements made possible by the funding, Kellegrew says the small grant also helped SVC build the appropriate skillset and credibility to take on larger restoration projects in the future.

Spotlight Resources: Bird-friendly Habitat Management, Collaborative Partnerships, Monitoring/eBird

More than 99% of the global population of Tricolored Blackbirds occurs within California, primarily in the central and southern regions of the state. A species on the Partners in Flight Red Watch List and classified as Threatened under the California Endangered Species Act, Tricolored Blackbirds were once abundant in California but declined to an estimated statewide population of about 200,000 adults in 2022.

Like many other species, the Tricolored Blackbird has declined due to habitat loss and degradation. Inspired by the fact that Deer Creek Hills Preserve hosted a nesting colony of Tricolored Blackbirds in one of its ponds in 2018, SVC staff worked to enhance habitat for the species at the site. The species looks for young stands of cattail surrounded by standing water, which protects their nests from predators, so SVC excavated a moat around the pond to create a barrier for predators such as raccoons. In the summer, volunteers help reestablish the banks of the moat and reduce the thatch in the nesting substrate to encourage the growth of young cattails for Tricolored Blackbirds.

Kellegrew says that SVC will be conducting a prescribed burn with CalFire this year, so he’s hoping to burn the cattail thatch in the pond this season, then reseed the nesting substrate. While SVC has not observed a nesting colony of Tricolored Blackbirds at the pond yet, there have been reports of the species foraging in the area. So, SVC will continue to monitor for the species and maintain the pond habitat to encourage more cattail growth. Kellegrew says, “We’ve got our fingers crossed that one day they’ll come back.”

On another part of the preserve, SVC’s efforts to enhance habitat for Burrowing Owls—a species that is a currently a candidate for listing under the California Endangered Species Act—have been met with observable success. Burrowing Owls often move into dens created by rodents such as ground squirrels, which are declining in the region due to habitat loss. Burrowing Owls had been seen in the area, but with no ground squirrels at Deer Creek Hills, they lacked suitable places for nesting—so SVC staff built eight artificial dens. The dens were installed within a 125-acre target area that was once an active mining site, where old culverts and wells provide additional places for the owls to burrow. Purple needle grass plugs were planted around the owl dens, as recommended by a member of the California Native Grasslands Association who provided input on the project.

All eight artificial dens that were installed at the site in 2021 have already been utilized by Burrowing Owls. Kellegrew says it’s difficult to determine the number of individuals using the dens, as Burrowing Owls are known to use more than one den at a time. To help pinpoint the exact number, Kellegrew plans to install trail cams near the dens this season; he hopes to fund this through a private donor.

Monitoring of both species will continue as part of the Rangeland Monitoring Network protocol that SVC implemented in 2021. Along with Tricolored Blackbirds and Burrowing Owls, SVC staff and volunteers will also continue to monitor for Loggerhead Shrikes, the third focal species of this small grant project. Using records of historical sightings of the species on eBird and a habitat suitability model developed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, SVC developed a georeferenced map grid to guide surveying efforts for Loggerhead Shrikes. Staff, docents, members of the Sacramento-Shasta Wildlife Society, and other volunteers conducted three surveys for the species during the 2021 season, observing several individuals at the preserve. The surveying helped start a conversation with local bird experts and raise awareness of the conservation needs of Loggerhead Shrikes, which laid the groundwork for species-specific restoration work that SVC may take on in the future.

“Keeping an eye on bird health helps us because it is an indicator for range health in general,” notes Kellegrew. Annual bird monitoring programs using eBird are combined with soil and plant surveys to assess the overall health of the preserve. Guided by Rangeland Monitoring Network protocols, SVC’s annual monitoring provides data to guide, justify, and fund future management and stewardship at Deer Creek Hills Preserve. The data also contributes to science at scale, both through eBird’s vast database and Point Blue’s Rangeland Monitoring Network, which collects information from 500 locations in California.

Making the Connection

“Birds are a big draw,” says Kellegrew. Birding hikes led by docents at the preserve help SVC connect with birders in the community, and having charismatic species such as Burrowing Owls and Loggerhead Shrikes at the site inspires the public to visit. For instance, visitors find it interesting to see bats and grasshoppers impaled on barbed wire fences as they drive into the preserve. Nicknamed “butcher birds,” shrikes are known for their habit of hanging prey as a method of food storage.

Through the implementation of Rangeland Monitoring Network protocols, this grant project also helped SVC start a conversation and then develop relationships with professors at UC Davis and professional service providers, such as HDR, an engineering firm that SVC hired for plant surveys. The contract work has blossomed into a fruitful partnership, says Kellegrew, as a botanist from HDR now provides pro bono services to SVC, including conducting two extra sampling events at the site each year.

Advice to Other Land Trusts

Kellegrew says the flexibility of the Cornell Lab during this project helped him focus on the important work of bird conservation; he was able to put most of his energy into work on the ground without worrying about complicated reporting requirements. He encourages other land trusts to think about how a small grant project could serve as a steppingstone to other sources of funding.

“Having a survey protocol that we can build off of and using the data that is collected through rangeland monitoring for grant applications has been invaluable,” notes Kellegrew. He believes this successful small grant project helped SVC establish credibility with other potential funders, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, by proving that SVC is capable of the legwork required to implement conservation practices and ultimately making them more competitive when applying for this additional funding.

Next Steps

Deer Creek Hills Preserve is extremely arid, so water has been a limiting factor for conservation projects at the site in the past. In 2024, SVC installed a well that produces enough water to feed multiple troughs for cattle and wildlife, which opened the door to a wide range of potential restoration projects.

As SVC prioritizes future work at the site, staff will be thinking about landscape-scale goals, and how projects at the preserve can help connect wildlife corridors and hiking trails. By collaborating with other organizations in the area to apply for funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, SVC will amplify the effects of its own work to preserve the beauty, character, and biodiversity, including birdlife, of the Sacramento Valley landscape.