Conservation Agriculture Benefits Wildlife

At the mention of ‘pasture’ your mind’s eye likely visualizes a tranquil grassland complete with cattle grazing on lush grasses. But focusing on the vegetation you might be surprised to learn that much more is taking place.

The metallic, bubbly mating song of a male bobolink floats across the springtime pasture, the cattle oblivious to the calls as they graze on tender new shoots. Perched on a grass stalk in another pasture, a male grasshopper sparrow announces his presence with his insect-like song while his mate busily constructs a domed nest at the base of a clump of grasses. In some areas of the state, grazing of grasslands created under the Conservation Reserve Program helped stabilize the once-endangered Henslow’s sparrow, with females loosely weaving their nests of dried grasses.

Regenerative Agriculture Practices

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) recognizes its responsibility to be a leader in conservation agriculture, and to ensure their agricultural lease program produces leases that are models to producers throughout the state. IDNR owns 475,000 acres and is responsible for resource management on 186 sites throughout the state. Within those sites 35,000 acres are managed through agricultural leases developed under the Agriculture/Wildlife & Habitat Lease Management Program. Key to the standards established by the program are the promotion of ecologically sound agricultural practices designed to improve soil health, minimize soil erosion, improve water quality, and reduce chemical impacts to benefit wildlife populations and their habitats.

Agricultural Practices Can Benefit Wildlife

Bob Gillespie, an Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Heritage Grassland Ecologist and Site Manager of Prairie Ridge State Natural Area (Jasper and Marion counties), explained that agricultural practices can benefit grassland wildlife by providing varied cover types and grass structures that grassland birds require throughout various stages of their life.

“Grassland birds, such as Henslow’s sparrows, prefer dense stands of warm season native grasses or dense prairie reconstructions, while the state-endangered upland sandpiper prefers short meadows with sedges,” Gillespie noted.

He continued by explaining that some species select areas based on how much duff—decaying plant material—is present in the grass stand. Other species require dead grass material to build their nests, which does not exist in a recently burned grass stand.

Use of Cover Crops

Historically, agricultural leases on IDNR lands have not allowed for the use of cover crops, however, in 2019 a move towards cover crop management began. In 2020, IDNR received a Regional Conservation Partners Program (RCPP) grant administered through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service which allows for moving 20 to 25 percent of the acreage currently in conventional crop production towards a cover crop/reduced tillage rotation to build soil health. After the RCPP grant is completed, IDNR agricultural lease contracts will require the tenant to continue to use cover crops in their rotation, with the costs offset by the reduced inputs needed to make the soil productive.

The RCPP grant allows IDNR to build soil health and invest in our own lands while setting up demonstration sites providing producers a chance to learn to use a cover crop rotation with reduced risk to themselves.

Backed by Research

Illinois Natural History Survey researchers annually monitored agricultural fields on IDNR properties in 13 counties throughout the state. Fields selected for the study had been allowed to recently go fallow or had been seeded with cover crops. Monitoring was conducted in April and May when cover crops and no-till fields will likely to be the of most benefit to migrating or breeding birds. Of the 62 species recorded, red-winged blackbirds were the most common followed by the brown-headed cowbird. Other primary species noted included the eastern meadowlark, field sparrow, mourning dove, savannah sparrow, Wilson’s snipe and swamp sparrow.

“The flagship bird for grasslands and agricultural landscapes in Illinois is the eastern meadowlark,” noted Mike Ward, principal investigator for the research project. “Meadowlarks use cover crop and no-till fields, with roughly three times as many found in cover crop fields than traditional agricultural fields and twice as many in cover crop fields than no-till fields.”

A migratory species, eastern meadowlarks typically start returning to Illinois in late March and are breeding by April.

“It is likely that cover crop fields provide ideal foraging and roosting areas for meadowlarks but additional research is needed to determine the extent of breeding attempts in such areas,” Ward explained.

The researchers noted that while such conservation practices aren’t the solution for countering the downward decline in many grassland bird species, consideration must be given to the environmental benefits of such practices, such as reduced erosion, scavenging of nutrients by the cover crops and increased soil quality.

Pasture Management

IDNR manages 1,200 acres of pasture, mainly on tracts within Perry County. With the goal of providing more suitable habitat for grassland wildlife, IDNR is actively moving towards improving pasture health by balancing animal unit (cattle, sheep and goats) stocking rates, better utilizing rotational grazing and better managing plant recovery times.

To achieve this goal, IDNR will gradually improve the pasture infrastructure and work with grazing specialists to develop and fine-tune the long-term plan. Ultimately, IDNR will utilize high density, low duration grazing, where many animals are confined to a small area for a couple days, then are moved to a new area. Previously grazed areas have a long rest time. This style of grazing allows for a more uniform grazing as well as more uniform spreading of manure—aka natural fertilizer—by the livestock.

Grazing Can Benefit Grassland Birds

On some areas enrolled in the IDNR agricultural lease program, grazing is prescribed to manage the density and structure of grasses.
In addition to using grazing as a practice to remove material and shorten the grass overall, Gillespie noted that “Managers may utilize grazing as a means of controlling woody brush, to develop wallows that may become vernal pools or to create patchiness in grassland stands. Grazing also may be used to manage for a particular plant response, such as creating a flush of ragweed or foxtail to benefit upland game.

Hay Meadows Benefit Wildlife

Hay meadows are another practice utilized on some IDNR lands managed through the agricultural lease program. Haying can benefit grassland wildlife by removing grass material, encouraging new growth and sometimes preventing weedy species from going to seed. Haying during the primary nesting season is not beneficial to grassland birds and IDNR restricts the dates when haying can occur on leased properties. Like grazing practices, haying also helps control many exotic species, such as fescue, and, by cutting small saplings to ground level, the invasion of woody undesirables.

Best Management Practices

IDNR utilizes Best Management Practices (BMPs), such as filter strips, riparian corridors, field borders, and grassy strips dividing large fields creating travel corridors, as an ecologically sound, wildlife-friendly agricultural practices. No fall tillage or fall nitrogen application are allowed on IDNR lands. The use of noenicitinoid-treated soybeans and foliar application of noenicitinoids or dicamba also is prohibited. Tenants agree to provide seed and chemical logs and use fluency agents. Date restrictions are in place on the more 2,000 hay lease acres to reduce grassland bird nest disturbance.

Monitoring Soil Fertility

IDNR strives to improve and maintain soil fertility at all leased properties. Lessees are required to meet, maintain or affect improvements towards soil health. Each lessee is required to perform soil testing in the fall of the second lease year, and IDNR test the soil in the fall of the last lease year. If no improvement of soil fertility has occurred by the end of the lease, improvements must be undertaken.
IDNR has also partnered with the University of Illinois to conduct in-depth soil health analysis on soils samples including carbon stocks and biological activity.

On your next springtime drive through an Illinois state park or fish and wildlife area, pause when you come across a regenerative agricultural field. Roll down your windows and you may hear the flutelike whistles of an eastern meadowlark or spy other grassland birds busily readying for a brood of young.

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Mike Chandler (Mike.Chandler@Illinois.gov) is the Agriculture/Wildlife & Habitat Lease Management Program Manager. His duties include working with the farm tenants, IDNR District Wildlife Biologist and Site Superintendents on the agriculture lease implementation and habitat management.

Bob Caveny is the Farm Programs Manager in the Office of Land Management at IDNR. His duties include agricultural leasing, working with the three Wildlife Propagation Centers (Des Plaines, Lincoln and Mt. Vernon), the controlled pheasant hunting program and field trials. He can be contacted at Bob.Caveny@Illinois.gov.

Eric Smith (Eric.L.Smith@Illinois.gov) is a Natural Heritage Biologist with the Division of Natural Heritage in central Illinois. His duties include management of of natural areas and improving habitat for threatened and endangered species. He has been monitoring grassland bird abundance as it relates to stocking rates for 20 years.