Little Brown Birds

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-143
Author(s):  
Richard Bohannon
Keyword(s):  
North Dakota ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
Mixed Grass Prairie ◽  
Oil Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mixed Grass ◽  
Sprague's Pipit ◽  
Party State

This chapter narrates the author's trip to western North Dakota's Bakken region, where he was mapping out habitat fragmentation caused by the recent surge in oil development. The research was really just an excuse to go out birding for a few days. Two birds are confined to the northern mixed-grass prairie: the Baird's sparrow and the Sprague's pipit. Both are small, brown birds, not terribly charismatic — what birders call LBJs or “little brown jobs” — and both are declining in population. The chapter then discusses how oil development occurs with seeming abandon in the Bakken and is only lightly regulated. Despite a history of progressivism and socialism in the American prairies, North Dakota today is essentially a one-party state — an explicitly oil-friendly Republican Party has held the governorship and both houses of the state legislature for years. Unlike resistance in parts of the East Coast, there have been no large-scale protests in North Dakota, save resistance to the pipeline by the Standing Rock reservation.

Long-term agroecosystem research on northern Great Plains mixed-grass prairie near Mandan, North Dakota

2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 1101-1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Sanderson ◽  
M. A. Liebig ◽  
J. R. Hendrickson ◽  
S. L. Kronberg ◽  
D. Toledo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Dakota ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Beef Steers ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Mixed Grass Prairie ◽  
Long Term Experiment ◽  
Mixed Grass ◽  
Livestock Productivity

Sanderson, M. A., Liebig, M. A., Hendrickson, J. R., Kronberg, S. L., Toledo, D., Derner, J. D. and Reeves, J. L. 2015. Long-term agroecosystem research on northern Great Plains mixed-grass prairie near Mandan, North Dakota. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 1101–1116. In 1915, a stocking rate experiment was started on 101 ha of native mixed-grass prairie at the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) near Mandan, ND (100.9132N, 46.7710W). Here, we document the origin, evolution, and scientific outcomes from this long-term experiment. Four pastures of 12.1, 20.2, 28.3, and 40.5 ha were laid out and stocked continuously from May until October with 2-yr-old or yearling beef steers at four rates [initially 0.98, 1.39, 1.83, and 2.4 animal unit months ha−1]. The experiment generated some of the first information on the resilience of mixed-grass prairie to grazing and drought and relationships of livestock productivity to soil moisture for predictive purposes. After 1945, the experiment was reduced to the light and heavy stocking rate pastures only, which have been managed and grazed in approximately the same manner to the present day. The pastures were used to assess responses of vegetation to fertilizer in the 1950s and 1960s, develop grazing readiness tools in the 1990s, and assess remote sensing technologies in the 2000s. The long-term pastures currently serve as a unique resource to address contemporary questions dealing with drought, soil quality, carbon dynamics, greenhouse gas emissions, invasive species, and climate change.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Cicero
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
The State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Conventions

The introduction outlines the history of Illinois, focusing on populations of southerners, immigrants, Indians, and enslaved blacks and their various effects on four constitutional conventions held between 1818 and 1869. The biography of Abraham Lincoln organizes the discussion: his migration to the state with other southerners, his service in the state legislature and as a U.S. representative as a Whig, his debates with Stephen Douglas, his election to president representing the new Republican Party, and the legacy of his efforts to unite the nation and to emancipate blacks during the Civil War. Themes of north versus south, rural versus urban (i.e., Chicago), slavery versus freedom, economic and railroad development, and debates about executive, legislative, and judicial powers shaped each of Illinois’s nineteenth-century constitutional conventions.

scholarly journals Mixed-Grass Prairie Passerines Exhibit Weak and Variable Responses to Patch Size

The Auk ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 807-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen K. Davis ◽  
R. Mark Brigham ◽  
Terry L. Shaffer ◽  
Paul C. James
Keyword(s):  
Tallgrass Prairie ◽  
Patch Size ◽  
Nest Survival ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Mixed Grass Prairie ◽  
Bird Density ◽  
Anthus Spragueii ◽  
Mixed Grass ◽  
Sprague's Pipit ◽  
Time Specific

Abstract Much of our current understanding of the demographic effects of habitat fragmentation on bird populations is derived from studies of passerines in forests and tallgrass prairie surrounded by woody vegetation. We quantified grassland bird density, nest survival, and productivity in 41 native mixed-grass prairie pastures during 1997-2000 in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Pastures ranged in size from 18 ha to 11,600 ha and were typically surrounded by agriculture (i.e., ranching and annual cropping). Grassland passerines did not respond strongly or uniformly to patch size. Sprague's Pipit (Anthus spragueii) was the only species whose density increased with pasture size. Patch size had minimal influence on nest survival of Sprague's Pipit or Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida); whereas nest survival increased with patch size for Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) and declined for Baird's Sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii), Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus), and Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta). Time-specific factors (i.e., nest age, date, and year) were more important predictors of nest survival than patch size. Exploratory analyses indicated that effects of edge distance, pasture shape, or landscape on nest survival were just as likely as patch-size effects. However, effects of edge on Chestnut-collared Longspurs may be governed by landscape-level factors, because nest survival decreased with distance to edge in landscapes with increased amounts of cropland. Our results indicate that mixed-grass prairie parcels ≥18 ha play a role in the conservation of several grassland passerine species currently in decline, but the conservation of Sprague's Pipit likely depends on maintaining larger tracts of native prairie. Les Passereaux des Prairies Herbacées Montrent des Réponses Faibles et Variables en Réponse à la Taille des Parcelles d'Habitats

Materials for the history of the gospel-Baptist movement in Ukraine

1996 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
S. Golovaschenko ◽  
Petro Kosuha
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Evangelical Christians ◽  
Evangelical Christian ◽  
First Results ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fruitful Cooperation ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The report is based on the first results of the study "The History of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Ukraine", carried out in 1994-1996 by the joint efforts of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Odessa Theological Seminary of Evangelical Christian Baptists. A large-scale description and research of archival sources on the history of evangelical movements in our country gave the first experience of fruitful cooperation between secular and church researchers.

Effects of Disturbance on Silver Sagebrush Communities in Dry Mixed-Grass Prairie

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-282
Author(s):  
L. K. Hickman ◽  
P. A. Desserud ◽  
B. W. Adams ◽  
C. C. Gates
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Grass Prairie ◽  
Mixed Grass
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