My work on field borders has been generated from the large interest by agricultural experts and resource conservationists as they attempt to develop incentives to encourage sustainable agricultural production. Federally subsidized conservation practices such as field borders, filter strips, and riparian buffers improve environmental quality for a number of reasons. The USDA-NRCS National Conservation Buffer Initiative (CBI) encourages use of conservation buffer strips by farmers. However, unlike many other federal programs (e.g. CRP), the CBI has not been widely assessed for its conservation value. The goals of this research are to 1) determine the effects of field borders on avian community structure during the breeding and non-breeding season and 2) determine reproductive success of grassland birds breeding in field border habitat. This work is being conducted with my graduate student Ross Conover, Dr. Wes Burger (MSU), and funded by Delta Wildlife.

Field Border               Traditional Edge (or lack of)     Winter Field Border        RWBL Feeding Video (*.MOV)