WFVX features grassland bird walk
WFVX (Fox22/Channel 7 in Bangor) reported on a Grassland Bird Walk at the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station’s Witter Farm Park Street Fields on June 17. The event also was promoted by the Portland Press Herald.
The free field workshop was led by Amber Roth, assistant professor of forest wildlife management at the University of Maine; Livia Raulinaitis, Maine pollinator and beneficial insect conservation planner at the Xerces Society; and Laura Suomi-Lecker, technical director of the Ag Allies’ Grassland Bird Program.
During the walk, participants toured the field and learned about how to manage grasslands to improve forage production along with bird and pollinator habitat.
“What we can learn here is why it’s important to, again, partner on conservation but also working lands,” said Linden Schneider, assistant director of the experiment station.
“So not to do away with the hay harvest at all, but postpone it and Ag Allies is a unique partnership in that way because they do offer some compensation for any monetary loss in postponing the hay harvests.”