Scott Somershoe
Flaming Azaleas, Carvers Gap
The Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture
Scott Somershoe
The Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV) partnership is focused on
the conservation of habitat for native birds in the Appalachian Mountains of the
eastern United States. The partnership consists of twelve states and commonwealths
from New York to Alabama, plus key federal agencies and non-profit conservation
organizations working within the AMJV area. The joint venture originated as
a regional partnership in 2005, and was officially recognized by the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service as an “all-bird” habitat joint venture in 2008. The AMJV’s mission
is to assist partners with all-bird habitat conservation consistent with major national
and international bird conservation plans. In other words, we help our partners
prioritize which species and habitats to focus on, where their on-the-ground
projects will have the highest return on their investments, and how much habitat is
needed for priority species, while also identifying and addressing key research and
monitoring needs to help us improve on our successes going forward.
Beaver pond.
Achieving Our Goals
Although our partnership is relatively new, AMJV partners recognize the benefits of
working together to achieve common goals for bird conservation in the Appalachian region.
We jointly prioritize our bird conservation issues and needs; develop projects and tools to
address these needs; identify geographic focal areas and habitat conservation actions to
provide the most benefit to our priority species and habitats; and, we evaluate conservation
outcomes through monitoring and research. Most importantly, our partnership is extremely
efficient—we use a small amount of federal Joint Venture funding to leverage and attract
matching funds, and to help direct partner contributions in pursuit of our common goals.
Partnerships
Science
In order to develop conservation priorities
and achieve our goals, the joint venture’s
products for planning, implementing and
evaluating conservation actions have a
strong scientific foundation. The science
and tools developed by the partnership help
guide the allocation of limited resources by
providing information on how much habitat
is needed for priority species, where we need
to focus habitat conservation actions to gain
the maximum benefit to bird populations,
and what specific habitat protection,
restoration and enhancement actions are
needed to restore and sustain birds and
other wildlife.
Communication
Joint venture staff and partners develop
outreach products to attract partners,
support existing funding, seek new funds and
raise awareness of joint venture conservation
priorities targeted to specific audiences. We
ensure that information and tools are easily
available in the formats and scales needed by
partners using traditional and new media.
landowners, and implement the
next NFWF-funded project to create
or enhance at least 12,000 acres of
Golden-winged Warbler habitat in
Pennsylvania and Tennessee over the
next two years.
Mined land Reclamation/Restoration
AMJV staff and partners have been
working with the Office of Surface
Mines Reclamation and Enforcement’s
“Appalachian Regional Reforestation
Initiative” (ARRI; arri.osmre.gov) to
target reforestation efforts for priority
birds, most notably Cerulean and
Golden-winged Warblers. Working with
ARRI’s Science Team, the AMJV has
developed focal area maps, outreach
materials, and training opportunities
to identify (1) the best places in the
region to target projects and (2) species’
habitat considerations when designing
and implementing projects. AMJV
partners are now developing a “Forestry
Reclamation Advisory” for the ARRI
partnership, which will focus on species
of wildlife most in need of targeted
reforestation efforts in the Appalachians.
Although we still have much progress
to make, our collaborative efforts
were recently awarded the first
“Presidential Migratory Bird Federal
Stewardship Award” by the Council
for the Conservation of Migratory
birds (arri.osmre.gov/PDFs/News/DOI
AwardPR52511.pdf).
Energy Development
AMJV partners (The Nature
Conservancy [TNC], Pennsylvania
Audubon, and Western Pennsylvania
Conservancy) developed models to
predict impacts to core forests from
various levels of Marcellus shale gas
Ohio reforestation lands
and wind power development in
Pennsylvania. TNC is expanding these
models to the entire Appalachian region,
while AMJV staff is coordinating an
effort to assess impacts of Marcellus
shale gas development on forest habitat
for several migratory bird species, using
the initial Pennsylvania models. The
AMJV’s project goals are to work with
partners to assess potential impacts
to forest bird populations, species
biodiversity, and reproductive success so
that we can ultimately develop a set of
bird-centric Best Management Practices
(BMP). This BMP will be integrated with
the broader Marcellus BMP document
being developed by Pennsylvania
Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, and will assist
companies in reducing their impacts on
breeding habitat for forest birds.
Ohio DNR
Golden-winged Warbler
Golden-winged Warblers: Proactive
Conservation for a Species
Petitioned to be Listed
AMJV partners recently completed
a Golden-winged Warbler Best
Management Practices (BMP)
document (www.amjv.org/library/
index.htm) for managed forestlands
in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The BMP provides science-based
management prescriptions for forest
managers to create breeding habitat
for Golden-winged Warblers, using
sustainable timber harvests. As part
of this National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation (NFWF)-funded project,
AMJV partners hosted three training
workshops for land managers (108
participated) in Golden-winged
Warbler focal areas. In addition, the
Natural Resources Conservation
Service hosted a training webinar
that was open to land managers
across the U.S. breeding range of the
Golden-winged Warbler (nearly 200
participants). Next steps: integration
with the “Appalachian Young Forest
Initiative” BMP for American
Woodcock, develop BMPs for
other habitat types (e.g., reclaimed
minelands) and states, continued
training of integral partners and
Brian Smith
Over 230 bird species occur annually in the
AMJV. Initial efforts have focused on upland
forests for species such as Cerulean Warbler,
Wood Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler,
and American Woodcock. AMJV partners
also are focusing conservation efforts on
high-elevation communities—especially
mountain balds and spruce-fir, red oak, and
northern hardwood forests—because these
communities support high priority species
(Canada Warbler), endemic subspecies or
possibly new species (Appalachian Yellowbellied Sapsucker, Red Crossbill), and offer
critical migration stopover habitat, but also
offer some of the most spectacular views and
outdoor experiences (The Appalachian Trail)
in the eastern United States.
Delivering Science and Conservation with Partners
Brian Smith
The AMJV provides a structure and process
that attracts a diverse set of partners, directs
federal grants and other existing funds
to the highest priority conservation areas
and actions, leverages and generates new
funding, and implements projects that
support joint venture goals and objectives.
Bill Hubick
Habitat Conservation
Brian Smith
The AMJVprovides a partnership structure
for federal, state, regional and local partners
to coordinate and improve the effectiveness
of bird habitat conservation planning,
delivery and evaluation at the regional, state
and local scale.
Cerulean Warbler
Scott Somershoe
Carver’s Gap on Roan Mountain in Tennessee.
ities
De
v
Conservation
Approach
egi
Strat es
ss
rior
tP
op
el
e
ce
uc
Measure S
Across the United States, Joint Venture partnerships have leveraged
every dollar of Congressional funds 35:1, helping to conserve 18.5
million acres of critical habitat since the inception of the program in
1988. Although the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture is relatively
new, our strong partnership and sound scientific foundation has
helped our partners target their conservation efforts to the most
important habitats and geographic areas for priority migratory birds,
while also allowing us to begin the evaluation of the effectiveness of
our conservation actions. The joint venture approach also facilitates
conservation planning around new and emerging challenges
and opportunities, such as effect of invasive species, unforeseen
development within geographies important to priority species,
and collaboration with other local- or regional-level conservation
partnerships to integrate collective objectives.
S
A Model that Works
Take Action
The iterative conservation approach taken
by the AMJV uses science-based planning
and tools to set priorities for conservation
action, monitoring, and research, allowing
the partnership to evaluate the effectiveness of
conservation actions.