Birds and beef: Audubon Society forges unique partnership with ranchers to conserve grasslands

The National Audubon Society is taking a market-based approach to conservation. Its “bird-friendly beef” certification program proposes to measure ecosystem health by using birds as a metric.
On the DoubleP Ranch in northeastern Oklahoma, Eric Perner was looking for ways to preserve habitat for his favorite grassland bird, the Northern Bobwhite Quail.

“When I grew up as a kid on our ranch, we had plentiful numbers of bobwhite quail,” Perner said. “I've just seen those numbers decimated over the years, and these trends continue.”

The quail, like many grassland birds, has dwindled as native grasslands disappear at an alarming rate. But Perner, who has been a full-time cattle rancher for nearly a decade, found a unique way to help preserve the small quail through a National Audubon Society program.