Audubon's Important Bird Areas in Nebraska

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1. Kiowa State Wildlife Management Area
2. North Platte National Wildlife Refuge
3. Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge
4. North Platte River Valley
   (Lake McConaughy & Lake Ogallala state recreation areas, and Cedar Point Biological Station)
5. Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge
6. Valentine National Wildlife Refuge
7. Niobrara Valley Preserve
8. Calamus Reservoir State Recreation Area
9. Rowe Sanctuary
10. Whooping Crane Trust: Wild Rose and Mormon Island Properties
11. Rainwater Basin
12. Niobrara State Park
13. Lewis & Clark Lake and Gavins Point Dam
14. Missouri National Recreational River
15. Ponca State Park
16. Thomas Ashford Scout Reservation
17. Desoto National Wildlife Refuge
18. Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge
19. Neale Woods Nature Center
20. Fontenelle Forest Nature Center
21. Schramm Park State Recreation Area
22. Lincoln Area Sale Wetlands Complex
    (Jack Sinn Wildlife Management Area, Arbor Lake, Whitehead Saline Wetlands, and Shoemaker Marsh)
23. Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center
24. Indian Cave State Park

The Important Bird Areas (IBA) project is an international effort to identify the areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations and to focus conservation efforts at protecting these sites.

Populations of many Nebraska birds have declined alarmingly, mostly due to habitat loss and fragmentation. The IBA project is a way to focus attention on the best habitats of Nebraska in an effort to slow or even reverse these population trends.

IBA's are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more bird species. IBA's include sites that birds use during breeding season, on migration, or as wintering grounds. Sites may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but usually they are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. IBA's may include lands that are public or private, protected or unprotected.

To qualify as an IBA, sites must satisfy at least one of the following criteria. The site must support:

• Species of high conservation concern in Nebraska (threatened and endangered species, e.g.)

• Significant concentrations of birds

• Assemblages of birds associated with rare or representative habitat types

• Restricted-range species (birds that are not widely distributed)

• Sites important in education and research

Specific criteria have been developed for Nebraska and will be used in selecting sites around the state to be IBA's.

The IBA project will help birds by:

• surveying habitats across the state to determine where the best places are for the birds in need

• developing conservation plans with land owners and land managers to assure sites continue to provide needed habitats

• monitoring sites to record if birds continue to use best areas

• educating everyone about the importance of birds and the protection of their habitats

The project is proactive, voluntary for landowners, sets science-based priorities for habitat conservation and promotes positive action to safeguard vital bird habitats.

More Information...

For more information, call or write Kevin Poague, Important Bird Areas Coordinator, Audubon Nebraska, P.O. Box 117, 11700 SW 100^th Street
Denton, NE 68339 Phone: (402) 797-2301 Fax: (402) 797-2304 E-mail

You can help identify and conserve Important Bird Areas:

1. Read through this website to learn about the IBA project.

2. Download the site criteria list.

3. Go birding! At a site that has the potential to be an IBA, record the number and kinds of birds you see that fit the criteria list.

4. Download the nomination form. When the third IBA nomination period opens (to be announced in this space at a later time) fill out the nomination form and send it in to the Audubon Nebraska office.(Contact the IBA coordinator for the status of nominations in Nebraska).

How else can I help?

1. Be a citizen scientist and keep track of bird species at potential IBA's, volunteer to help land managers, or be a conservation advocate.

2. Get involved with organizations that are dedicated to birds and their habitats.
   a) Click on the CHAPTERS button at the top of this page to find the Audubon chapter nearest you.
   b) The Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, founded in 1899, is the citizen birding society of the state dedicated to the study, appreciation, and protection of birds.

3. Help us grow the IBA program by making a donation. The IBA program depends on private donations like yours for continued success.