Three of Maine’s timberland owners were recognized recently by the U.S. Department of the Interior for the companies’ efforts to help protect populations of American woodcock.

Irving Woodlands LLC, Plum Creek Timber Co. and Lyme Timber Co. were among more than 20 participating organizations in the Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative to received Interior’s 2008 “cooperative conservation” award.

In total, more than 700 groups or individuals across the country were recognized as working cooperatively on a broad range of conservation projects. Participants in Maine’s Penobscot River restoration project also received a cooperative conservation award.

Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the North American Bird Conservation Survey have identified the American woodcock as a national “focus species” worthy of special attention because of population declines.

A small migratory shorebird, the American woodcock inhabits forests from the Northeast to the Great Lakes region. But their numbers have shrunk significantly since the 1970s, largely due to habitat loss. The birds need young or “early successional” forests and shrublands that offer cover from predators but also ample supplies of worms, their favorite food.

Daniel McAuley, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Orono, said that until recently populations in Maine had declined by about 2 percent annually since the 1970s. Maine serves a particularly important role to the wider population, he said.

“It’s one of the larger breeding areas in the Northeast,” McAuley said.

The companies were recognized for management practices that helped maintain or establish woodcock habitat as well as for assisting researchers as they conducted critical surveys of the populations.

“We are deeply appreciative of this award,” John Gilbert, Irving Woodlands’ fish and wildlife manager, said in a statement. “Our continuing cooperation with the Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative will allow us to choose the right harvest prescription at the right time and place to increase woodcock populations.”