No Houses Here – this Land is for the Birds!
The meadowlark lifts from the grass as we tread across its territory on our walk toward the ominous sign proclaiming “5 Acre Lots for Sale.” Perched on
high open ground with distant views of Blue Mound and just a short commute from Madison, this site must have seemed perfect for residential development, just as it was a perfect spot for this bird to nest.
Grassland birds like meadowlarks, bobolinks, dickcissels, Henslow’s sparrows, and upland sandpipers have declined more steeply than any guild of birds in North America – down 43% – since 1970 according to the U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Even before then, these once-abundant birds and countless species of insects and other animals had already lost hundreds of millions of acres of habitat as the once vast prairies were plowed under for row-crop agriculture, grazed to dust, and otherwise left to grow to trees where fires had once regularly cleansed the land and kept it open.
Since the 1970s, further pressures drove yet steeper declines: Growing cities and their suburbs expanded outward; increasing ownership of rural second homes began to endlessly fragment the countryside; an onslaught of invasive plant species crept in to clog everywhere not burned, grazed, plowed, sprayed or mowed; the push for biofuels drove conversion of valuable grassland habitats to corn; and the rise of confinement agriculture with the corresponding loss of grazing animals on pastures, removed a critical last vestige of habitat as those animals were now fed in lots rather than left to wander and feed among the grasses, flowers, birds, and bees.
In fact, the decline of Wisconsin’s iconic traditional dairy industry has paralleled the decline in grassland birds. Where every farm once had mosaics of pastures that provided forage for cattle and surrogate habitat for birds, many thousands of family farms have been lost, and most areas now host the never-ending cycle of corn-bean rotations instead of diverse hay fields and pastures.
Fortunately, southwest Wisconsin, which used to be awash in prairie and oak savanna, still has some grasslands, many acres of which reside in what are known as grassland Bird Conservation Areas or BCAs.
Bird Conservation Areas (BCA) are identified regions of about 10,000 acres designed to support grassland birds. The goal is to have a predominantly treeless landscape with a central core area of 2,000-acres made up of connected, permanent grassland. Surrounding this core, a mix of farmland and smaller grassland patches can be found, helping create a healthy habitat for wildlife. The current designated BCAs are far from reaching the aspirational goal, but continued efforts have used the BCA model as a guiding north star.
Here in the core of the Perry-Primrose BCA, one of the four BCAs in southwest Wisconsin, where this meadowlark had nested under the “Lots for Sale” sign, at least eight bird species listed as threatened or of “special concern” can regularly be heard and seen.
Grassland BCAs provide a science-based model for protecting grassland birds, pollinators and other conservation targets within an agricultural landscape. If successfully implemented, the model can ensure enough large blocks of grassland to support area-sensitive species, like grassland birds, which don’t fare well when a landscape is too subdivided. Small parcels cause problems for area-sensitive species because they usually have brushy fence lines where edge predators like raccoons, possums, skunks and coyotes prowl. The closer a grassland bird nests to an edge, the less likely its young are to successfully survive and fledge.
Back in 2009, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) introduced the BCA concept within a feasibility study and master plan for the Southwest Wisconsin Grassland & Stream Conservation Area (SWGSCA), with a vision of working with diverse partners to conserve and enhance functioning grassland, savanna and stream ecosystems, set within a rural landscape of working farms.
Shortly thereafter, DNR purchased two core tracts: 360 acres of grassland at the Barreltown BCA just north of Mineral Point, and 335 acres of grassland at the Perry-Primrose BCA southwest of Madison. Hopes were high to continue building out these and two other BCAs with additional protected lands, but by this time, Wisconsin’s elected leaders, led by former Governor Scott Walker, began cutting state land conservation funding year over year. Where in 2009, DNR had $32.5 million per year to purchase public lands, in 2025, the DNR has only $6 million available for land acquisition statewide.
Despite all of these challenges, and perhaps to some degree because of them, a special group of public and private organizations came together to carry on the vision of securing Southwest Wisconsin as a place with healthy grasslands, successful farms, clear streams, diverse wildlife, and people who value and enjoy this landscape. Together, the Southern Driftless Grasslands (SDG) partners (driftlessgrasslands.org) work to advance this vision of landscape-scale conservation that can secure species by mitigating the effects of habitat fragmentation.
Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC) acts as the fiscal agent for SDG, and we’re proud to work alongside conservation partners including Pheasants Forever, The Prairie Enthusiasts, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa County, Dane County, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the DNR, and others. Together, we strive to advance our mutual goals and those of our neighbors across this land, including that meadowlark.
Back in 2023, when DALC and SDG staff saw that “For Sale” sign, we realized the threat of housing in the core of the BCA was upon us, and we had to act if given the chance. Thanks to a willing seller and funding from Dane County’s Conservation Fund, the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, and the Bobolink Foundation, DALC purchased 83 acres in the core of the Perry-Primrose BCA earlier this year. Our acquisition – the first conservation purchase in a BCA since 2013 – included all of those 5-acre lots, each on a prairie remnant!
Those remnants, perched high on rocky soils so poor that they escaped the plow, need substantial work to beat back the invading brush and grassland
menaces, such as crown vetch, parsnip, and sweet clover. Still, the precious nature is holding on, with pasque flowers blooming on the site this past spring, and coreopsis, leadplant, and flowering spurge gracing the summer breezes.
Beyond working with SDG partners to restore the remnants and eventually seed down the remaining cropland to grass or prairie, we’re also pressing ahead to secure other sites for the birds by using a combination of land protection and restoration tools. We invite our neighbors to reach out so we can discuss opportunities for conservation easements, fee-title sales, and opportunities for cost-shared transitions of crop ground to grass for bird-friendly grazing. We also urge landowners to remove excess “edges” by clearing fence lines between fields. When doing so, leave any oak trees, but remove the brush and undesirable trees that have grown up in recent decades. And of course, whenever possible, avoid haying grasslands during the primary nesting season, from mid-May through at least the end of July, but ideally as late as August 15.
Finally, we also ask our entire community to raise your voices in support of renewing and reestablishing the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program (KNSP), which was left unfunded in Wisconsin’s biennial 2026 and 2027 budgets. Without a KNSP grant, we couldn’t have bought this land, and we won’t be able to buy additional tracts to build out the BCAs, not just for the birds, but for future generations who deserve to experience a meadowlark’s song.