Promoting Biodiversity
PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY
California’s dairy farms provide important ecosystem benefits that support biodiversity—from manure composting and other practices that promote soil health, to creating habitats for birds and other wildlife. As wetlands have continued to disappear, dairy forage fields have become a favorite nesting place for threatened tricolored blackbirds. By allowing the birds to safely nest in fields, farmers have been helping the birds to reproduce and thrive, allowing for a modest recovery in the population since 2015.
“It’s a small contribution, but we’re going out of our way to do it. We as dairymen do that. We care about the environment and the animals and species that are around us.”
-FRANK HOMEN, MERCED, CA
For more than 10 years, Audubon California has partnered with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Dairy Cares, and other California dairy organizations, as well as conservation groups to support farmers as they protect the threatened tricolored blackbird species. Since 2015, NRCS has provided funding to help dairy farmers recoup some of their financial losses caused by delaying or forgoing harvests.
"I think it’s important that the tricolors survive, and I’d like to be part of that in some small way."
-FRANK MENDONSA, TIPTON, CA
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