Habitat Features Influencing Waterbird Use of Managed Wetlands Enrolled in a Public-Private Partnership for Land Conservation: The California Waterfowl Habitat Program

Draining, water diversion, and development have greatly reduced the availability of freshwater wetland habitat around the world, and many remaining wetlands are on private lands. Public–private partnership programs can be an important means for promoting habitat conservation and management on private lands. We investigated bird use of 117 wetlands enrolled in the California Waterfowl Habitat Program in California's Central Valley, where two-thirds of wetlands are under private ownership and management. Specifically, we quantified the influence of wetland habitat features and surrounding land cover on waterbird density and diversity in late winter and early spring and during the waterfowl breeding season. Dabbling duck and shorebird densities were highest in wetlands that had water depths < 20 cm, and waterbird densities decreased with water depth. Greater amounts of emergent vegetation, especially tall and dense emergent vegetation, had a negative effect on total waterbird density but a positive effect on species richness and secretive marsh bird density. Shorebird and breeding duck densities were lower in wetlands with a large number of trees and other potential perch sites, and waterbird densities decreased with the amount of nearby wetland habitat on the landscape. Overall, we estimated that during late winter and early spring, private properties that were enrolled in the California Waterfowl Habitat Program (8000–8500 ha each year) supported 480,000 birds per day during extreme drought conditions in 2022 and 280,000 birds per day in more normal, non-drought conditions in 2023. Over the 76-day winter and early spring survey period, this amounted to more than 20 million bird use days on wetlands enrolled in the California Waterfowl Habitat Program during late winter and early spring. These results demonstrate the value of public–private wetland conservation partnerships, the influence of wetland habitat features and surrounding land cover on waterbird abundance, and the benefits of habitat features that could be incorporated into management plans and wetland selection criteria for enrollment into public–private conservation programs.