Report Says Ethanol and Birds Don't Mix

A report published last week by researchers at Michigan State University concludes that the increased production of corn in the northern grasslands' prairie pothole region is adversely affecting native bird habitat. According to the report, "areas of high corn increases have had marked decreases, as large as 30 percent, in both the number of sensitive grassland species and the number of sensitive grassland individuals." The states included in the report are Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The researchers point to government incentives for the corn ethanol industry as the driving force behind higher corn prices and demand, which they say has resulted in a dramatic increase in corn planting.

"Farmers have shifted land into corn production from other crops, idle agricultural land, and native prairie, thereby causing wildlife habitat loss and degradation," the researchers write. "Given that current legislation mandates increases in corn ethanol production through 2015, these patterns are likely to continue."

The researchers conclude that this will significantly impact bird species in the region. "Grassland bird populations, already declining, will be unable to rebound as nesting sites are turned into row crops," the authors state. "Water will become increasingly polluted and costly to clean as the grasslands and wetlands that once filtered contaminants disappear."

To reverse this trend, the report recommends phasing out government incentives for corn ethanol production and replacing them with financial support for cellulosic ethanol. In addition, the authors recommend an increased emphasis on preserving prairie bird habitat through a combination of sanctions and incentives for landowners as well as adjustments in the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP.

The conclusions of the Michigan researchers are similar to those published in September 2009 by researchers from the Nature Conservancy who highlighted the likely relationship between increased corn production and a sharp reduction of the amount of grassland that landowners had enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. The researchers recommended the use of alternative feedstocks such as wastes, agricultural residues, and cover crops, as well as native perennials harvested in a way that maintains wildlife habitat.
 
The corn ethanol industry responded forcefully to the most recent research from Michigan State, questioning both its accuracy and methods. In comments issued today, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) said that “selective and questionable use of data, unclear research methods, and emotional arguments cast doubt on the reliability of the conclusions and recommendations.”
 
The RFA also disputed the conclusion that increased corn planting was reducing prairie wildlife habitat by pointing to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing, according to the RFA, "that recent expansion of corn acres nationally and in the four-state region examined in the NWF report came through crop switching, not through the conversion of native grassland, since total crop acres in the four states actually declined slightly from 2004 to 2007."