Restoration Potential: The ability to adapt to certain agricultural crops and other human-made landscapes (White 1983) and recent continental population trend indicate favorable recovery potential if appropriate habitat is available. Lack of suitable nesting and brood-rearing habitat appear to be the major factors limiting the population in the Northeast (Carter 1992). For agricultural lands restoration, recommendations include planting native warm-season bunch grasses in large fields or combining existing fallow fields to provide a habitat mosaic (Jones and Vickery 1997). Owing to the decline of both native and non-native grasslands, particularly in eastern portions of the range, airports (if adequately managed) could play an important role in producing stable densities of upland sandpipers and other grassland avifauna (Osborne and Peterson 1984).
Preserve Selection and Design Considerations: Require a relatively large home range for successful breeding which provides extensive feeding and loafing areas nearby. Many apparently ideal habitats within the breeding range are too small to be acceptable (Buss 1951). Proposed changes in land use or farming practices in established breeding areas should be reviewed for compatibility with nesting and brood-rearing requirements. Breeding locations sufficiently large enough to support viable populations should be preserved from development (Carter 1992). Recommended minimum grassland size is 150 acres (Jones and Vickery 1997). In the Northeast, the approximately 300-acre Lewis-Dickens Farm area on Block Island, off the Rhode Island coast, has historically supported two pairs during the breeding season (C. Raithel, pers. comm.).
Optimal breeding habitat contains a mixture of short grass areas for feeding and courtship, interspersed with taller grasses and forbs for nesting and brood cover (Kirsch and Higgins 1976, Ailes 1980). The height and density of grasses in nesting and feeding areas should permit adults and chicks to move through the vegetation easily. An upland sandpiper summering area is of good quality if it meets the physical and biotic needs described under Habitat, is located in idle or very lightly used cover (Higgins et. al. 1969), and remains undisturbed during the nesting phase of the breeding cycle.
Management for on public lands can partially compensate for loss and deterioration of habitat on private land (Kirsch and Higgins 1976). Publicly-owned natural prairies should be managed to preserve their original status (Tester and Marshall 1962).
Management Requirements: Prescribed burning, grazing, or mowing can be used to provide essential nesting conditions, but these activities can be detrimental if conducted inappropriately (Carter 1992). In grazed pastures, cattle should be restricted from nesting areas from May through mid-July (this could be accomplished through fencing of individual nests). Fields of domestic grasses should be short (15-20 cm) in spring, and haying operations should be curtailed until mid-July. At airfields, grasses should be maintained at 20-30 cm tall in areas not directly adjacent runways or taxiways, and mowing of these areas should not be conducted from May through mid-July. Mow nesting fields every 1-3 years, to provide grass 6-8 inches tall at time of spring arrival (Jones and Vickery 1997). Burn every 5-10 years after September 1 or before May 1; only part of large units should be burned in any year (Jones and Vickery 1997).
Periodic treatment by fire, light grazing, and mowing to remove cover on designated areas may be desirable for the long-term maintenance of suitable habitat and to maintain grasslands in the best ecological condition (Kirsch and Higgins 1976, Kirsch et al. 1978). The frequency of treatments needed to maintain high-quality vegetation will vary over the geographic range and with differences in the successional stage of the vegetation. Seeded grasses, like native grasses, require treatment to maintain plant vigor and retard succession (Kirsch 1974).
BURNING: To maintain native mixed-grasslands in prime condition for nesting, Kirsch and Higgins (1976) recommend rotational burning at three-year intervals. If burning is not possible, grasslands should remain undisturbed. Recent grassland management studies by Higgins (1986) in North Dakota suggest that, when averaged over the following three to four growing seasons, fall burns may enhance nest success more than spring burns. Kirsch (1974) reported gross increases in insect life, especially grasshoppers (Orthoptera), on burned grasslands in North Dakota. Similarly, Queal (1973) noted a greater variety of small insects on burned grasslands in Kansas. Grasslands managed by fire need periods of rest to allow vegetation regrowth and some residual cover accumulation. Northern grasslands should not be burned at intervals of less than two years (Higgins 1986).
GRAZING: In grazed pastures cattle should optimally be restricted from nesting fields during the egg-laying and incubation periods, 1 May - 15 July. Alternatively nests can be protected from trampling by constructing a fence around the nest site. Only the upland sandpiper's tolerance to disturbance and reluctance to desert makes this management technique possible. In Wisconsin low stakes or "tepees" were used to exclude animals but they were found to attract cattle as rubbing posts, thus inviting nest destruction (Buss and Hawkins 1939). Annual grazing of native grasses may not be a suitable management method to control vegetational succession. In Wisconsin, light to moderate grazing did not control encroachment of woody species in natural grasslands. Heavy, prolonged grazing, on the other hand, can lead to destruction of desirable components of prairie vegetation (Tester and Marshall 1962).
HAY FIELDS: Grasses in nesting fields should be short at the time of spring arrival, from 15-20 cm in height (K. Higgins, pers. comm.). All haying operations in nesting fields should be curtailed until after chicks have hatched in mid-July. Fence posts, used by upland sandpipers for display, can be erected where none are available (K. Higgins, pers. comm.). An education campaign can help protect nesting sites and keep human-induced mortality of nests and chicks to an absolute minimum.
AIRFIELDS: At airfields grasses should be maintained at a height of 20-30 cm over portions of the airfield not directly adjacent to runways or taxiways. Mowing of these areas should be restricted during the nesting and brood-rearing period, 1 May-31 July, to reduce the potential for nest destruction and mortality of incubating adults or flightless young. Maintenance of taller grass on portions of the airfield not directly adjacent to runways provides nesting habitat for upland sandpipers, discourages large concentrations of social flocking birds, such as blackbirds and gulls, and reduces mowing costs. Instituting a "watch policy" for grounds maintenance personnel helps to minimize destruction of nests and chicks encountered during mowing operations (White and Melvin 1985).
Management Research Needs: Detailed information on regional breeding trends, including the Canadian provinces and Alaska, is needed to determine the current status of populations. Information on regional fledging success and characterization of nesting cover are essential to making local management recommendations. Knowledge of migration patterns and refueling requirements, as well as identification of South American wintering areas and conditions on wintering grounds, are critical to long-term protection.
Several forthcoming papers are expected to address the management of habitat. B. Bowen and A. Kruse are co-authors of a paper (in prep.) presenting the results of a seven-year study on the effects of grazing on nesting in south-central North Dakota mixed-grass prairie. K. Smith and M. Green are co-authors of an upcoming paper on grassland bird responses to periodic burn and grazing treatments to reestablish native prairie at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota. Since the refuge's prairie restoration project was initiated in 1979, nesting densities have increased from zero, to five to six nests per 100 acres (40.5 ha) (K. Smith, pers. comm.).
Data from over 600 North Dakota, South Dakota, and southwestern Manitoba upland sandpiper nests are being compiled by K. Higgins and H. Kantrud for an upcoming publication on the nesting biology of shorebirds in the Northern Great Plains. Among the approximately 30 habitat and nesting variables incorporated into the report will be analyses of cover and land use treatments in nesting areas, dominant plant types, percent dead vegetation at nest sites, and size of selected nesting fields (K. Higgins and H. Kantrud, pers. comm.).