With >70% of the United States held in private ownership, land‐use decisions of landowners will ultimately dictate the future of bird conservation in North America. However, land‐use objectives of landowners vary considerably and present opportunities and challenges for bird conservationists. Innovative strategies incorporating proactive approaches to address educational, financial, social, and economic needs of landowners are required to garner participation in conservation programs and practices to create or enhance bird habitat on privately owned working lands. Farm Bill conservation programs and practices provide unprecedented opportunities to facilitate bird conservation at regional and national scales and frequently serve as the primary vehicle for many non‐governmental organizations to accomplish their bird conservation goals. We identify current challenges and opportunities for bird conservation on private lands and present 4 case studies whereby partnerships with federal agencies, mainly the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, have proven successful in eliciting positive, measurable outcomes to bird conservation efforts on private lands spanning many North American physiographic regions. The future of bird conservation will increasingly rely upon the ability of federal agencies to prioritize and allocate additional resources to deliver bird conservation programs on private lands and a greater awareness by conservationists of the role of economics in the decision‐making process of landowners. © 2013 The Wildlife Society.

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Alteration of Iowa, USA, landscapes for agricultural production has resulted in a loss of >99% of the original prairie and >95% of native wetlands. This conversion has included riparian areas, which, as interfaces between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, are important to many wildlife species. Farm Bill programs have resulted in the reestablishment of millions of hectares of grasslands and wetlands nationwide, including >100,000 ha in riparian areas of the Midwest. We assessed plant and arthropod responses to burning and disking of riparian grasslands in east‐central Iowa in 2001 and 2002. Burning altered the plant community by removing litter and standing dead vegetation and had negative effects on several arthropod taxa, including Hemiptera and Lepidoptera. However, we observed no differences in vegetation or arthropods between burned and unburned fields during the second year postburning (P > 0.05). Disking decreased the cover of grasses, litter, and standing dead vegetation and increased plant species richness and the cover of forbs and bare ground (P < 0.05). Arthropod abundance and dry biomass were greater on disked than undisked portions of fields (P < 0.05). Increases in the abundance and biomass of arthropods associated with changes in vegetation structure and composition likely improved habitat quality for a number of breeding bird species. Both burning and disking appear to be effective management options for maintaining or enhancing riparian grasslands for wildlife.