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Three Rivers Land Trust, who coverage area includes Stanly County, recently received a $25,000 grant from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to facilitate a habitat improvement project.

The Creating and Improving Avian Habitat Quality along Critical Corridors in Central North Carolina restoration project will improve habitat quality for songbirds and declining species like northern bobwhite.

This grant funding will broaden TRLT’s capability to create and manage habitat for species that have declining population trends. This project will restore and enhance more than 300 acres by creating and maintaining critical acres that provide crucial food and cover resources for birds.

This project will improve habitat quality for target songbirds through land management practices that include prescribed fire, snag and canopy gap creation, invasive plant control, and ecosystem restoration. Restoration work will occur on oak hickory forests, bottomland hardwood forests, pine woodlands and old fields.

“This grant funding is instrumental to the stewardship of our lands and provides an opportunity to create and maintain plant communities that support avian species that have declined precipitously in our region within the past 50 years,” TRLT Conservation Lands Manager Katie Stovall said.

It is TRLT’s hope that this grant funding will impact many more acres, in addition to their own, on adjoining lands or from private landowners that see the results of their management work.

Habitat management is an important aspect to successful land and wildlife conservation, which is why Three Rivers Land Trust has developed the Habitat Enhancement Lands Program (HELP). This for-fee service is designed to assist landowners in achieving their conservation needs and desires. This program includes sound wildlife and forest management advice, cost-share guidance, and assistance with implementation of desired practices. Visit trlt.org/help for more information.

To learn more about how to conserve your own lands or how you can support Three Rivers Land Trust in their conservation mission, contact Emily Callicutt, land protection specialist at
Three Rivers Land Trust, by calling 704-647-0302 or by email at emily@trlt.org.