Native Plants As Habitat For Wildlife - Native Plant Society of ...

Rare Plant Conservation in Important Bird Areas - Where is the Common Ground
Josef K. Schmutz
Community Conservation Planner, Important Bird Areas Program/ Nature Saskatchewan
In the Important Bird Area (IBA) Program, special areas are awarded an Important Bird
Area designation for conservation purposes if the areas are used by large concentrations
of birds, if birds present are at risk, or if the sites represent intact biomes and their natural
bird inhabitants with restricted ranges.
The IBA Program was launched initially by BirdLife International in the UK. Today
there are BirdLife Partners in over 100 countries. In Canada the national partners are the
Canadian Nature Federation and Bird Studies Canada. In Saskatchewan, the
conservation component of this program is being delivered by Nature Saskatchewan.
Funding partners of the Community Conservation Plan for Chaplin, Old Wives and Reed
lakes include Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Saskatchewan (CARDS), the
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management
(SERM) and the Canadian Millennium Partnership Program.
Nature Saskatchewan is working with the Canadian Nature Federation and Bird Studies
Canada to deliver the conservation planning component of this program in Saskatchewan.
IBA Saskatchewan was launched on 1 February 1999. At the inaugural IBA-
Saskatchewan workshop held in Saskatoon on 22 October 1997, 123 candidate areas
were nominated by several dozen naturalists. Data compilation and assessment by
outside reviewers is now completed, yielding 53 IBAs approved by Bird Studies Canada.
The number of approved IBAs may yet grow as more information becomes available,
particularly in the north. However, current IBA priorities involve conservation planning
and implementation of suggested actions. The 13 sites shown below have conservation
plans completed or in various stages of completion. The program takes an ecosystem
view to conservation, and seeks to combine sustainability with bird protection.
Two of the 13 sites focus on grasslands (Govenlock, Nashlyn and Battle Creek IBA, and
Colgate IBA), one on a marsh-lake-upland complex (Cumberland Marshes IBA), and the
remainder on water bodies. For lake IBAs the adjacent upland is usually equally if not
more important in the ecology of IBA birds. In some cases the IBA has been expanded to
include the entire watershed (Redberry Lake, and Chaplin, Old Wives and Reed lakes) or
portions of watersheds.
22