I just finished attending the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, and saw a good talk on biofuels production and grassland birds. The research was done in Wisconsin (by Dave Sample), but I think the findings are broadly applicable. There are some troubling trends. Because of corn prices, more corn is being planted (in WI, up 11% in the last year). There has been a large decline in re-enrollment of lands in the CRP (conservation reserve program--generally good for grassland birds). More ethanol plants are being built to provide a sustained market. This bodes ill for most grassland birds, as if they did not have enough to worry about already. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]