{"id":4398,"date":"2026-02-23T17:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapter.ser.org\/northwest\/?p=4398"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:48:06","slug":"follow-the-food-bopps-habitat-improvement-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.ser.org\/northwest\/follow-the-food-bopps-habitat-improvement-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Follow the Food \u2014 BOPP\u2019s Habitat Improvement Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A little about BOPP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Birds of Prey NCA Partnership<\/a> (BOPP) is a small nonprofit working inside and around the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA), near Boise, Idaho, in support of on\u2011the\u2011ground restoration, monitoring, education, and community involvement. For BOPP, restoration focuses on improving habitat structure and function by re-establishing native shrubs, grasses, and forbs, and by supporting healthy prey populations across the sagebrush steppe. They work closely with agencies, researchers, and volunteers to help the landscape adapt to big changes happening across the sagebrush steppe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little about Steve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BOPP\u2019s collaborative, hands\u2011on approach reflects the leadership of Executive Director Steve Alsup\u2014a bird biologist\u2019s bird biologist: sharp, thoughtful, and deeply committed to raptors and the ecosystems that support them. Steve brings the same level of enthusiasm to soil crusts, raptor diets, and the logistics of hauling a portable toilet into the desert. That mix of scientific rigor and practical curiosity has helped shape BOPP\u2019s work and strengthen the impact of the Habitat Improvement Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restoration on the Ground<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On most good\u2011weather weekends in the spring and fall, you\u2019ll find BOPP, a constellation of partner groups, and a reliable crew of volunteers planting in targeted areas across the NCA. This is low\u2011elevation sagebrush steppe \u2014 already dealing with invasive annual grasses, out of cycle fire regimes, and a changing climate that doesn\u2019t make things easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers often come because they heard about the work and wanted to help out. They tend to return because the events are well organized, welcoming, and set up so people feel useful right away. Coffee helps. Gloves help. And yes, the legendary portable toilet mounted on a trailer that Steve tows to remote sites also helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the wind kicks up (and it does), the crew shifts to seed\u2011starting efforts, gathering in Boise city parks to fill seed trays together or through local high school programs \u2014 keeping momentum even when fieldwork can\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Large
Sagebrush seed bounty from one of four public seed collection events hosted by BOPP in the fall of 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"People
A group of volunteers collect winterfat seeds as part of a National Public Lands Day event hosted by BOPP and IDARNG in the fall of 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"People
A group of volunteers collect winterfat seeds at a BOPP Habitat Improvement Program public event in the fall of 2025. Winterfat provides a high-protein food source for big game, small mammals, and bird species throughout the harsh NCA winters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A group of Outdoor Natural Science class students from Kuna High School help pack shrub and forb seedlings in preparation for a National Public Lands Day public planting event in the fall of 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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BOPP also hosts Snake River Raptor Fest<\/a> each year outside Boise, partnering with a mix of local musicians, a winery, food trucks, and incredible scientists to create a day where restoration, conservation, and community come together in an easy, inviting way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“It’s all about the birds.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Steve and the BOPP team, everything circles back to the birds \u2014 the role raptors play here, the changes happening across their habitat, and what it takes to keep these systems functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCA was designated to support one of the densest populations of nesting raptors in the world. Seventeen species of eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and other birds of prey breed in the NCA, with several additional species stopping over during migration or wintering in the area. With the exception of golden eagles, which have been monitored annually in the NCA for over 50 years, monitoring of other raptor species has been conducted intermittently, often depending on short-lived funding sources. Until a few years ago, monitoring for one of the NCA\u2019s iconic species, Prairie Falcons, hadn\u2019t been conducted since 2003. Prairie Falcons are one of the focal species that the NCA was established to protect \u2013 it\u2019s thought that ~5% of the world\u2019s population of these falcons nest on the basalt cliffs of the Snake River Canyon within the NCA. In fact, the boundaries of the NCA were established based on a radio telemetry study of falcon foraging movements across the benchlands above the canyon walls. \u201cWe really needed updated survey data for prairie falcons and other canyon-nesting raptor species,\u201d Steve says, \u201cbut funding for that is tough.\u201d He remembers a mentor from undergrad telling him to follow the food<\/em>. Prairie falcons rely heavily on ground squirrels during the breeding season, and as populations of larger prey species, like jackrabbits and cottontails, have declined dramatically since a wave of large NCA wildfires in the 1980s, larger raptor species like golden eagles and ferruginous hawks have also become more reliant on ground squirrels. As conversion of native shrub steppe habitat to exotic annual grasslands continues rapidly within the NCA, understanding what raptors eat \u2014 and whether those prey populations are stable \u2014 is central to understanding the whole system.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve puts it this way: \u201cIf we don\u2019t know what the birds are doing, or what their prey are doing, how can we know whether restoration efforts are working, or not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That long overdue round of prairie falcon monitoring \u2014 the first in many years \u2014 happened from 2019-2021, and the Habitat Improvement Program grew from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Program Built Through Partnership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now in its fourth year, BOPP\u2019s Habitat Improvement Program has strong, practical partnerships with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Idaho Army National Guard (IDARNG), Idaho Department of Fish & Game, and the Boise State University community. Boise State researchers and students study and work in the landscape, co\u2011host a bi\u2011annual symposium, and collaborate closely with BOPP to refine restoration goals and track how the system is changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve shared a few publications for those wanting to dig deeper, but two themes show up across everything they do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n