Idaho's Important Bird Areas Program
Idaho's Important Bird Areas (IBA) program was launched in 1996 as a partnership between
Idaho Partners in Flight and the Idaho Audubon Council. An IBA Technical Committee encouraged nominations and reviewed materials for candidate IBAs. From 1997 through 2000, the committee reviewed and voted on nominations. To date, 52 sites have been identified as IBAs in Idaho - 37 are wetland sites and 15 are upland sites; 11 are globally-recognized, such as American Falls Reservoir, Oxford Slough, and Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge.
Idaho's IBA sites are a small part of an international network of sites that provide critical habitat for birds. The Idaho IBA program is now beginning phase two where proponents are being sought to work toward conservation and management of IBAs, through an IBA Stewardship Adoption Program. These individuals and organizations will be champions for bird conservation at particular sites and will work cooperatively with each site's land manager or landowner. Additional site nominations are being sought, and missing information for accepted sites is being compiled.
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Another important part of the phase two process is monitoring birds at Idaho's IBAs. Monitoring already has been initiated at some sites - conducted either by biologists responsible for the management of the area, or by volunteers. These efforts, intended to collect basic information about the IBAs, at a minimum create an inventory of bird species present at each site, which will lead to further investigations. Idaho's new statewide all-bird monitoring program - the Idaho Bird Inventory and Survey (IBIS) - will initiate more extensive monitoring at all wetland IBAs and selected upland IBAs across the state.
For more information on Idaho's IBA program and how you can nominate a site, serve as a site steward, or help monitor birds, please contact Idaho's
IBA Coordinator.
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