Beef producers take the lead on grassland bird conservation

A non-profit organization that represents Manitoba cattle farmers has received funds from the federal government to help farmers conserve habitat for birds. Environment and Climate Change Canada gave Manitoba Beef Producers $750,000 as part of the department’s Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands program. Beef producers are especially important to this conservation effort. Species like the loggerhead shrike, the Baird’s sparrow and the chestnut-collared longspur use the same kind of prairie grasslands where their cows graze — it used to be grazed by bison. The farmers’ fields are some of the birds’ last remaining habitat. Learn more at mhhc. mb.ca/the-birds-and-the-beef.