The OPJV Region
The Oaks and Prairies region is a vital transition zone in Texas and Oklahoma containing a mosaic of woodland and grassland habitats. Declining bird populations face numerous challenges in the OPJV. Fire suppression and fine fuel reduction via livestock grazing have reduced fire frequency resulting in accelerated development of shrub and tree species. The end result of this process has been a decline in habitat for savannah and grassland-associated birds. Recent estimates from Oklahoma indicate that expanding red cedar transforms about one square mile daily from shrub and grass habitats to cedar woodland.
Ecoregions
The Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture covers almost 60 million acres from Tulsa, Oklahoma in the north to San Antonio, Texas in the south, including all of the Edwards Plateau. Over 95% of the land is privately owned, and 85% is agricultural land. The OPJV region contains several major metropolitan areas including Tulsa and Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, and Dallas, Fort Worth, Killeen, Austin, San Antonio, and Bryan/College Station areas in Texas. These areas have seen population growth of 13 to 47% from 1990-2000.
Most of the grassland habitat within the Post Oak Savannah has been converted to cotton production or planted in Bermuda grass; 98% of the Blackland Prairie has been lost, primarily to cultivation; and grassland habitat within the Cross Timbers is being planted with “improved” forages. Additionally, nearly 3 million acres of rural land in Texas and Oklahoma were converted to urban uses from 1982 to 1997.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ESRI
Strategic Habitat Conservation
The Joint Venture approach to avian conservation, Strategic Habitat Conservation, involves a number of tools including: designing conservation strategies (Plan), helping to implement those strategies (Do), and conducting follow-up monitoring and research (Learn). The end result is a Strategic Habitat Conservation framework that links and strengthens these conservation tools as a repeating cycle of planning, doing, and learning
