Beneficial Management Practices for Saskatchewan

Species at Risk:

Sprague’s Pipit Threatened

• Olive-tan upperparts streaked with black & buff

• Whitish or buff under-parts with dark streaks

• White outer tail feathers

• Dark eyes and thin, pale-colored bill, legs & feet

• Call of descending notesKim Dohms

• Prefer native prairie with vegetation of intermediate height and sparse to intermediate density

• Can be found in tame grasslands

• Avoid areas with extensive tree or shrub cover

• Ground-feeder; eats a variety of insects (i.e. grasshoppers and beetles)

• Located in the southern portion of the province

• Status: Threatened

• Declined due habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, pesticides and drought

• Estimated at 300,000 birds but exact number is unknown

Beneficial Management Practices

Habitat Size

• Retain fragments of native prairie in patches of 160 acres (65 ha) or more

Grazing

• Moderate grazing is most beneficial in the Aspen Parkland ecoregion

• Low to moderate grazing is most beneficial in the Moist Mixedgrassland ecoregion

• Low grazing is most beneficial in the Dry or Semi-Arid Mixedgrassland ecoregion

Woody Vegetation

• Do not plant trees or shrubs on or within 100m of native or tame grassland

• Reduce or remove woody vegetation in native or tame grassland

Converting Cropland to Perennial Cover

• Convert cultivated land to perennial cover

• Seed a grass mix that includes a prostrate form of legume (i.e. cicer milk vetch, trefoil or purple prairie clover)

• Seed finer grasses in forage mixes such as native grasses, Kentucky bluegrass or meadow brome

Converting Cropland (cont’d)

• Seed herbaceous species that grow well in a stand with other species

Invasive Alien Plant Species

• Manage invasion of exotic species in native grasslands that do not harm native herbaceous vegetation

Forage Harvesting

• Delay harvesting of tame hay until after July 15th

• Mowed tame hayfields are better habitat than fields left idle for more than one to two years

Roads

• Avoid constructing built-up roads

• Re-vegetate linear developments with native or fine, mid-height tame vegetation