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The Oklahoma Audubon Council is a coalition of the chapters of the National Audubon Society in Oklahoma. Representatives from each chapter meet several times per year to promote the Audubon purpose of "Protecting birds, wildlife and their habitats for all to enjoy" throughout the state. The Council has taken on the role of sponsoring the Important Bird Areas program in Oklahoma, Which had been one of only two states that did not have an IBA program. We also share information about programs and other activities, support each other.

Update: January 2008  Oklahoma now has State IBA areas.  They are The Selman Ranch in Harper County and The Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Alfalfa County.   

What is the Important Bird Areas Program?

THE IMPORTANT BIRD AREA PROGRAM

Audubon, as the Partner for BirdLife International, is working to identify a network of sites that provide critical habitat for birds. This effort known as the Important Bird Areas Program (IBA) recognizes that habitat loss and fragmentation are the most serious threats facing populations of birds across America and around the world. By working through partnerships, principally the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, to identify those places that are critical to birds during some part of their life cycle (breeding, wintering, feeding, migrating) we hope to minimize the effects that habitat loss, and degradation have on bird populations. Unless we can slow the rapid destruction and degradation of habitat, populations of many birds may decline to dangerously low levels. The IBA program is a global effort to identify areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations, and focus conservation efforts at protecting these sites. In the U.S. the IBA program has become a key component of many bird conservation efforts, for example: Partners in Flight, North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, and the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan.

What is an Important Bird Area?   Please see the OK Audubon Council webpage for more detailed information:  http://www.okaudubon.org/index.htm

Important Bird Areas, or IBAs, are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird. IBAs include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but usually they are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. IBAs may include public or private lands, or both, and they may be protected or unprotected.

To qualify as an IBA, sites must satisfy at least one of the following criteria. The site must support:

• Species of conservation concern (e.g. threatened and endangered species)
• Restricted-ranges species (species vulnerable because they are not widely distributed)
• Species that are vulnerable because their populations are concentrated in one general habitat type or biome
• Species, or groups of similar species (such as waterfowl or shorebirds), that are vulnerable because they occur at high densities due to their congregatory behavior
  

Identification of a site as an IBA indicates it’s unique importance for birds. Nonetheless, some IBAs are of greater significance than others. A site may be important at the global, continental, or state level. The IBA identification process provides a data-driven means for cataloging the most important sites for birds throughout the country and the world.  

The Oklahoma IBA Program

 History of OK IBA Program:

• March 4^th, 2006 – OK IBA Program Proposed.  The Audubon chapters in Oklahoma meet to reactivate the state-wide Oklahoma Audubon Council. As its first major project, the Council decides to pursue the formation of an Oklahoma IBA program.
• July 22^nd, 2006 – OK IBA Steering Committee Formed.  Oklahoma Audubon Council meeting was attended by Lynn Tennefoss, from Audubon Society Members Services office and John Cecil, coordinator of the Audubon Important Bird Areas program.  John Cecil discussed the IBA program and agreed to assist in the organization of the Oklahoma IBA program.
• October 21^st, 2006 – OK IBA Coordinator Selected.  At the Fall OOS meeting, it was announced that Eric Beck had been selected by the Oklahoma Audubon Council as the coordinator for the Oklahoma IBA program.  This is currently a volunteer position as we do not yet have funds to pay a salary.
• November 2006 ~ February 2007 – Technical committee members recruited.
• February 24^th, 2007 – First joint meeting of the OK IBA Technical and Steering committees.  Potential IBA sites were discussed and the plan for the year was laid out.

Martin Brown
Chair - OK IBA Steering Committee
Oklahoma Audubon Council
martin1420@sbcglobal.net