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Streaked Horned Lark

Streaked Horned Lark

(Eremophila alpestris strigata)

The streaked horned lark is a small ground dwelling bird that is endemic to the Pacific Northwest.  Small populations occur along Washington’s coast, through the Puget lowlands, and on lower Columbia River islands while a majority of the approximately 1,500 remaining individuals are found in the Willamette Valley. Relying on wide open spaces that have sparse vegetation, the streaked horned lark population has declined greatly with the loss of ideal habitat due to range contraction, land use conversion, and the encroachment of woody vegetation. In 2013, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the streaked horned lark as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

CPOP and the Species-Specific Working Groups
The Cascadia Prairie-Oak Partnership (CPOP) is an ecoregional group that brings together conservation focused professionals that represent state, federal and local government, military, conservation groups and other entities interested in prairie-oak conservation. CPOP was created to increase coordination between these groups in order to promote conservation action, leverage funding, and expand recovery efforts. The streaked horned lark working group first convened in 2007 and meets annually to discuss and prioritize recovery actions.

What is an Action Plan and what is its purpose?
Each CPOP working group maintains an Action Plan, a document that lists the ‘next best tasks’ that can be taken to improve the status of the species and ranks the highest priority actions. Each year at the annual meeting the list is updated to reflect completed work, new opportunities and changes in urgency. The Action Plan is meant to encourage dialogue and consensus among the group as well as to inform entities that work with conservation policies and funding, such as US Fish and Wildlife Service, as to what actions are priorities to support the recovery of the streaked horned lark.


2015-2016 Action Plan Ranked Priorities

  1. Seek opportunities to secure sites dedicated to lark conservation (e.g. lark preserves).
  2. Secure protection commitment on priority occupied sites (e.g. management plans, Safe Harbor).
  3. Develop Willamette Valley component of survey protocol in order to finalize range wide standardized survey and monitoring protocols that address occupancy, abundance, trends, use and spatial distribution.
  4. Determine factors limiting juvenile and adult survivorship in OR & WA (e.g. predation).
  5. Support partner biologists to work on agricultural related lark issues.
  6. Refine and Implement management prescriptions to create breeding habitat and develop winter habitat prescription in agricultural matrix and understand effect on lark vital rates.
  7. Facilitate lark-beneficial habitat management on Willamette Valley private lands through incentive programs or other means.
  8. Evaluate effect of pest control agents to larks and determine if there are different application techniques that can eliminate negative effect.
  9. Implement habitat restoration activities on breeding and wintering grounds.
  10. Survey new and historic sites.
  11. Evaluate need to control predators (e.g., at airports) and if implemented, evaluate the effect of predator management and its influence on population trend.
  12. Evaluate appropriateness and feasibility of population augmentation, relocation or reintroduction.
  13. Implement habitat restoration activities on breeding and wintering grounds.
  14. Maintain range-wide working group and coordination.
  15. Develop mitigation banking strategy and criteria.

Recently Completed Actions

Since the first Action Plan was created in 2007, the following notable tasks have been completed or have made substantial progress:
  • Several additional entities have been engaged in the coordinated effort to recover the streaked horned lark.
  • An analysis of habitat distribution and change through time was conducted on Columbia River islands. Discussions have begun to translate this knowledge into a plan to systematically create lark habitat along the river using dredged material deposition.
  • Nest exclosure research was implemented range-wide, aimed at protecting eggs and nestlings from predation.
  • Oregon and Washington partners are working together to abate decline through a genetic rescue project, which translocates eggs from Oregon to increase lark genetic variability in south Puget Sound.
  • New habitat restoration techniques were tested and applied.
  • An integrated strategy to remove invasive plants is being implemented range-wide. These include bulldozing beach grass, prescribed fire and careful use of herbicides to remove structure modifying plants.
  • Partners are tracking lark productivity and occupancy at many important sites.
Streaked Horned Lark Status 2013
  • 2016-2017 Action Plan
  • 2016 Working Group Minutes
  • 2015-2016 Working Group Summary
  • 2015-2016 Action Plan
  • 2015 Working Group Minutes
  • 2014-2015 Action Plan
  • 2014 Working Group Minutes
  • 2013-2014 Action Plan
  • 2013 Working Group Minutes
  • 2012 Action Plan
  • 2011 Action Plan
  • 2010 Action Plan
  • 2009 Action Plan
  • 2008 Action Plan

Questions?

Email ekim@cnlm.org

Copyright 2014
This page is managed by the Center for Natural Lands Management for the Cascadia Prairie Oak Partnership. All rights reserved.