Dairy farmers provide habitat for threatened birds

Wiebren and Luciana Jonkman have been entertaining about 25,000 guests for the past month or so at their dairy in Merced.

The guests are tricolored blackbirds, recently listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act, which set up shop in one of the dairy's wheat fields. The Jonkmans are among the farmers with colonies in their fields who have agreed to postpone harvest until the birds leave, which in this case should be sometime this week, once the fledglings are ready to fly.

"Every day is Earth Day for the dairy farmer," Luciana Jonkman said. "Every day, we have to make choices that are important for the environment, for the families that we provide an income for, and I really hope that people can see that the dairy farm families are essential to the environment, are essential to the food security, and that's the story we want to help people understand."

After the California Fish and Game Commission listed the bird as threatened on April 19, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife entered into a Voluntary Local Program. Under this program, effective for the next five years, farmers who agree to protect colonies of tricolored blackbirds nesting in their fields are themselves protected from liability and can be compensated for lost crop value through the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Farmers who want protection for "incidental take," or an accidental loss of bird life in the course of normal farming activity, may contact CFBF policy advocate Noelle Cremers at ncremers@cfbf.com. The program covers Stanislaus, San Benito, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties.

Tricolored blackbirds, which once numbered in the millions, have lost about 90% of their habitat, according to the NRCS, and so have turned to building their nests in farmers' grain fields.

"Dairies are an extremely pivotal point in the success of the species," said Jesse Bahm, a Fresno-based NRCS biologist. "The dairies provide a tremendous amount of habitat out here, and we're just looking to have good working relationships with the dairies. This year, we had just under 600 acres in our program, and we're spending about $385,000 to help offset some of the costs."

That money is critical, said Paul Sousa, director of regulatory and environmental affairs at Western United Dairymen.

"It is absolutely vital to have the funding, to say, 'As a dairyman, you did nothing wrong. The birds chose your site to nest in,'" Sousa said. "But there's some compensation, because you have to feed your cows. You put something into this field—seed, water, the costs of planting and getting that field ready to harvest."

Sousa said that NRCS, the Audubon Society and others have bird watchers out looking for signs of colonies, and that when one is found, the best way to get the word out is for the conservationists to call the dairy association.

"If he's a member of ours, we probably have his cellphone number," Sousa said. "If we call, he knows who we are. We're a trusted source of information."

Bahm said all dairies with tricolored blackbird colonies this year are working to protect them.

"Farm Bureau and Western United (Dairymen) have been really amazing at reaching out for us and talking to the producers, and getting the producers to understand the program," Bahm said.

Jonkman described working with NRCS as "absolutely simple."

"They really hold our hand through the process and help us make good decisions, educated decisions," she said.

The birds' chosen field was planted to wheat intended as silage for her dairy cows, Jonkman said. Delaying harvest means the wheat is past its prime as high-quality silage. Jonkman intends to use the compensation to purchase replacement feed.

Aaron Rives, a conservationist with NRCS, said the Jonkmans' participation this year was crucial. He said the colony started out with about 10,000 birds and grew over time.

"This turned out to be a very important field, because there were 25,000 tricolored blackbirds nesting in this field," Rives said. "We think there's about 200,000 of these birds in existence. So that means we had about 10% of the entire population nesting in one field. It was a tremendous opportunity to really help this species, and we were really blessed to work with a great family, the Jonkmans, who were so willing. They see the interaction between agriculture and wildlife, and they love to be a part of it. They're happy to help."

Rives had nothing but good to say about working with the Jonkmans.

"The Jonkmans were really good about not disturbing the birds," Rives said. "They've been great hosts and been excellent people to deal with. They've been very cordial throughout this entire process."

If tricolored blackbirds ever return to her farm, Jonkman said she won't hesitate to help them.

"I don't see why we wouldn't want to do it again," Jonkman said. "It's important that we maintain our right to farm, and I think using conservation as a way to tell our sustainability story as a first-generation dairy farm family is an important story to tell."

(Kevin Hecteman is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)