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ConocoPhillips and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation:
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Phillips Petroleum and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation have been partners in bird conservation for more than a decade. During this period, Phillips has invested more than $1.5 million in partnership with National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to benefit birds, their habitats, and the environment.
Phillips is also the lead corporate sponsor for International Migratory Bird Day, and annual event that attracts more than 500,000 to hundreds of events across the country. By promoting awareness and conservation action, International Migratory Bird Day is stimulating thousands of birders and nature lovers to help conserve birds and their habitats.
Read on to learn more about one our flagship projects that benefits native prairies and in particular grassland birds such as Greater Prairie-Chickens and Henslow's Sparrows. A complete list of ConocoPhillips / National Fish and Wildlife Foundation partnership projects follows.
From
the observation blinds perched atop a windswept hill at The Nature Conservancy's
Dunn Ranch, near Eagleville, Missouri, dawn can be a desolate time. In
mid-April the air is still cold, the prairie grasses mostly dead and brown,
just beginning to green up here and there. A few meadowlarks sing, and
in the distance we can hear a woodcock making its "peent" call,
but otherwise it's quiet. Huddled inside the canvas blinds, we peer out
the small windows, scanning the short grasses for birds.
Just as the sky begins to brighten, they appear. At first, just one, then four, then a dozen. I don't know where they came from-maybe they were there all the time, hunkered down in the hollows, or maybe they snuck in from nearby-but all of a sudden we are surrounded by Greater Prairie-Chickens. They are all males, and they strut forward, not attracted by our presence, but rather by the lekking area immediately in front of our blinds. Here, for untold generations, the male chickens have gathered to dance, strut their stuff, and boom, all in the hope of attracting a female.
Some are a few yards from the blinds, but others just a few feet away. So close that I can't focus my "close-focus" binocular. It's like begin seated right behind the orchestra pit at the Kennedy Center, with the performers so close you can almost reach out and touch them!
Greater Prairie-Chickens are about the same size as their distant barnyard relatives, but any comparison stops there. The males have rakish black and white bars across their chest, framing bizarre yellow air-sacs that inflate on either side of the neck. Long, pointed feathers protrude from the back of their neck, rising abruptly with excitement, forming a serrated halo around the birds head.
It begins with foot stomping. When the mood strikes them, each male rapidly stomps his feet, pounding on the hard soil. This close, we can feel the vibration in our own feet.
Then, the males tilt forward, their short tail feathers pointing straight up, and let loose with a booming sound generated by the air-sacs. It's indescribable. Maybe it's a little like the sound made when you wiggle a big piece of sheet metal, but that's a poor comparison. It's extra-terrestrial. What must the early explorers have thought when they awoke to this sound, oblivious to its avian origin?
On this day, only one female appears. She looks a little overwhelmed, courted by these dozen males, each trying to outdo the other. After a few minutes she flies off, perhaps trying to play hard to get. The males continue, undaunted, forever hopeful.
For even a seasoned birder, this was the experience of a lifetime. I shivered through most of that morning's performance, not because it was cold, but because it was a spine-tingling experience.
Sadly,
the dance of the prairie-chicken is now hard to see. Loss and degradation
of habitat, pesticide poisoning, and a host of other factors have reduced
most populations of prairie-chickens to mere ghosts of their former glory.
Here at the Dunn Ranch, however, things are looking pretty good for the
Greater Prairie-Chicken, thanks in part to a $200,000 grant from Phillips
Petroleum and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The Nature Conservancy, working closely with the Missouri Department of
Conservation, purchased the 1,200 acre Dunn Ranch, the largest remaining
tallgrass prairie remnant in the central tallgrass ecoregion. These two
conservation groups are now working to restore the Dunn Ranch prairie
to its original grandeur. Hedges and windrows are being felled, native
prairie plants propagated and replanted, and fire restored to this ecosystem.
The gains are small now, but the prize is huge.
The Dunn Ranch is part of a much larger conservation project-more than 19,500 acres-called the Pawnee Prairie Bird Conservation Area. This is one of dozens of Bird Conservation Areas planned across the continent as a result of a decade of planning through the Partners in Flight program. Over time, this network of Bird Conservation Areas will help secure the future for all of North America's migratory and resident birds.
Planning and implementing this network of Bird Conservation Areas will require a Herculean effort by dozens of conservation groups, federal and state agencies, and other partners with an interest in conserving birds and their habitats. Here are Dunn Ranch, two of those partners are Phillips Petroleum and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Phillips Petroleum and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are helping restore prairie and prairie-chickens at Dunn Ranch through a $200,000 grant awarded to the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation in fall of 1999. This grant is one of more than a dozen partnerships where Phillips and the Foundation have combined their resources to do good things for birds and the environment.
Phillips and the Foundation began working together in 1992 by jointly funding the Prairie Bird Population Study, a research project conducted by the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. This groundbreaking research was some of the first to investigate the dramatic declines in populations of prairie songbirds, and has resulted in management guidelines of use to both public and private landowners.
Since this inaugural partnership, Phillips and the Foundation have joined forces to fund the following projects:
Year |
Project |
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1992 |
Prairie Bird Population Study - a research and monitoring project to help determine factors responsible for declines in prairie songbirds. |
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1992 |
Partnerships for Conservation Handbook-"How to" book on partnerships between public and private interests in order to protect fish and wildlife resources. |
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1992 |
San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, Water Storage Project - a 375 acre freshwater storage reservoir to benefit waterbirds and other wildlife. Grantee: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
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1992 |
Project WILD "Home for Pearl" Video - a touching story about children learning about conservation and habitat through the rehabilitation of an injured Bald Eagle. ATTENTION TEACHERS! The "Home for Pearl" video is available free for teachers by sending your name, title, school, grades taught, shipping address, and phone to: Phillips Educational Products, or contact them at 1-800-884-0555; fax: 570-822-8226; |
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1992,95,96 |
Project WILD Urban Action Grants - establish state action grants in 25 states to broaden hands-on conservation education opportunities. Grantee: Project WILD |
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1993-1994 |
Greenworks! -initiate, in cooperation with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, more than 500 environmentally focused community action projects including development of an urban forest curriculum. Grantee: American Forest Foundation |
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1993 |
National Forest Birding Guide - bird-finding guide to 40 National Forests with information on how to volunteer at these sites to help conserve birds. Grantee: American Birding Association This publication can be ordered from American Birding Association sales or your local bookstore. |
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1993-1994 |
Oklahoma Private Lands Initiative - Fund a multi-phase cooperative program between U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, corporations, state agencies, and conservation organizations, and private landowners to protect wildlife habitat on private lands The goal of the project is to protect 575,000 acres by 2000. Grantee: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 |
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1994-2000 |
International Migratory Bird Day -the biggest event on every birder's calendar! More than 500,000 people annually participate in this education program designed to raise awareness about migratory bird conservation needs. |
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1994 |
Buyer Beware Campaign - develop a "suitcase for survival" program to education children about illegal international trade in wildlife products. Suitcases distributed to participating zoos for use in school programs. Grantee: World Wildlife Fund U.S. |
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1994-1996 |
Project WET Networking Initiative - recruit coordinators from 20 state water resources agencies and train them in water education in order to facilitate teacher training workshops. Grantee: Western Regional Environmental Education Council |
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1994 |
Adopt-A-Wetland - provide wetland education workshops for 180 educators using Project Aquatic WILD curricula and expand Adopt-A-Wetland to minority communities along the Texas/Mexico border. Grantee: Texas A&M University |
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1995 |
High Island, Texas, Acquisition - Expand High Island, Texas' most visited bird sanctuary, through acquisition of 200 acres of habitat and facilitate regeneration of degraded habitat. Grantee: Houston Audubon Society |
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1997 |
Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas - Compile a baseline survey of distribution and abundance of breeding birds in Oklahoma for a multi-year atlas project. Results will benefit conservation in many ways, particularly the land-use planning process. |
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1998 |
High Plains Partnership - Coordinate a partnership of diverse stakeholders that will work toward a region wide, proactive voluntary solutions to decline of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. Grantee: Western Governors' Association |
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1999 |
Bird Conservation in the Gulf of Mexico - link conservation partners and important bird sites from five U.S. and six Mexican states into a coordinated action plan to protect migratory bird habitat in the Gulf Coast region. Grantee: Gulf Coast Bird Observatory |
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1999
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Dunn Ranch Prairie Acquisition -- acquire 1,500 acres of good condition prairie to add to the 19,500 acre Dunn Ranch Bird Conservation Area, a Partners in Flight high-priority grassland for Greater Prairie-Chickens, Henslow's Sparrows, and other fauna and flora. Prairie restoration, monitoring, and research are also part of this project. |
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2000
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Phillips Flyway Website - create a website (www.phillipsflyway.org) for birders and all types of educators that will provide curricula, posters, videos, and a host of other education material about birds. This site will be "one-stop" shopping for anyone interested in education materials involving birds! |
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2001
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Shorebird Sister Schools/Sister Cities Program - expand this on-line Internet education program that introduces broad audiences to shorebirds and wetland habitats, and allows participants to track the migration of Arctic nesting shorebirds from their wintering grounds to nesting areas in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. Grantee: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
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2001
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Bolivar Flats, Texas, Shorebird Habitat Conservation - help acquire a 615 acre tract of gulf-front beach, salt marsh, and uplands associated with the Houston Audubon Society's Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary in Prot Bolivar. Grantee: Houston Audubon Society
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Phillips Petroleum has also generously supported the bird conservation programs of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, contributing to our successes with Partners in Flight, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and more than 500 grants awarded over the past decade specifically for conservation of migratory birds and their habitats.
By working together, Phillips Petroleum and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation accomplish far more than either could alone-it's the power of partnerships! For more information on Phillips' bird and environmental programs with other partners, visit their website www.Phillips66.com. To learn more about National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, visit our website at www.nfwf.org.
Peter Stangel
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation