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Effectiveness of Voluntary Habitat Stewardship in Conserving Grassland: Case of Operation Burrowing Owl in Saskatchewan

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Abstract

There have been no published performance evaluations of nongovernmental, voluntary habitat stewardship programs. The Operation Burrowing Owl (OBO) stewardship program, initiated in 1987, was evaluated for its effectiveness in conservation of grassland habitat during 1986–1993. The 108 OBO sites from 1987 to 88 and 98 randomly selected non-OBO sites that were grassland in 1986 in the Regina-Weyburn, Saskatchewan study area were classified by size and agricultural soil suitability. By 1993, 41 (38%) of the 108 OBO sites had been withdrawn from the program. The 1986 area of grassland was compared with grassland area calculated from digitized 1993 LANDSAT imagery. A correction for satellite inaccuracies was determined. Grassland retention in 1993 was significantly higher at OBO sites (66%) than at random sites (49%), demonstrating that the OBO voluntary program effectively conserved habitat. Also, grassland retention was significantly lower on sites with better agricultural soils, and for sites <12 ha in size. Site type (OBO or random), size and their interaction, followed by agricultural soil suitability, had the greatest effects on grassland retention. During an era of accelerated grassland loss, OBO strongly and positively (statistically significant) affected conservation of grassland sites most at risk: sites <12 ha in size and with good to excellent agricultural soils. This suggests that grassland conservation efforts focus on vulnerable sites (small size and/or good agricultural soils) to provide nesting habitat for burrowing owls. Our study demonstrates that a voluntary stewardship program can significantly increase conservation of habitat.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the following for their help with this study: participating OBO landowners; P. Moore, C. Parker and M. Yaskowich (Nature Saskatchewan or NS) for assisting with truthing of sites; D.G. Hjertaas (Saskatchewan Environment or SE) for assistance with the study design and providing the 1986 Burrowing Owl survey data; D. McKinnon and K. Murphy (SE) for providing statistical advice; J. Keith and S. Porter (Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre) for providing the 1993 Southern Saskatchewan Digital Land Cover data and preparing Figure 1; L. Strauss (Saskatchewan Watershed Authority) for checking the ownership status of sites; M. Dumanski and W. Bristol (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) for providing Agricultural Census Data; and members of the Canadian Burrowing Owl Recovery Team for comments during earlier stages of the project. We also thank D.G. Hjertaas and G. Riemer (SE), K. DeSmet (Manitoba Conservation), T.I. Wellicome and G. Holroyd (Canadian Wildlife Service), and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. In addition, we thank L. Langford and the staff at Policy and Legislation Branch, Saskatchewan Environment, for their support during the writing of this article. Funding for this project was provided by Nature Saskatchewan, Canadian Council for Human Resources in the Environment Industry (CCHREI), SE’s Fish and Wildlife Development Fund, and Environment Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk. Nature Saskatchewan receives funding from Saskatchewan Lotteries.

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  1. Nature Saskatchewan, 206-1860 Lorne Street, Regina, SK S4P 2L7, Canada

    Robert G. Warnock & Margaret A. Skeel

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  1. Robert G. Warnock
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Correspondence to Robert G. Warnock.

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Warnock, R., Skeel, M. Effectiveness of Voluntary Habitat Stewardship in Conserving Grassland: Case of Operation Burrowing Owl in Saskatchewan. Environmental Management 33, 306–317 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0013-1

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