Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
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Healthy Sagebrush Communities Poster Now Available (FREE!)
WE'RE THRILLED THAT THE NRCS HAS REPRINTED THIS BEAUTIFUL AND INFORMATIVE POSTER. GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
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Healthy sagebrush communities include people, wildlife, and plants. Threats like conifer encroachment and invasive annual grasses are responsible for the majority of degraded sagebrush habitat. Fortunately, we have proven solutions that address these threats and improve sagebrush habitat for everyone and everything that depends on thriving sagebrush rangelands.
This beautifully illustrated poster shares how sagebrush conservation benefits the whole sagebrush community. The NRCS has recently made copies available to the public (limit 5 per individual). Get one for your office, classroom, or to give to valued partners helping with sagebrush conservation.
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Why is Cheatgrass Bad?
UPDATED POST FROM WLFW ARCHIVES DIGS INTO SAGEBRUSH COUNTRY'S BIGGEST SCOURGE
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According to the Sagebrush Conservation Design, invasive annual grasses, like cheatgrass, are the single-largest driver of degradation of core sagebrush areas, causing ~69% of losses since 2000.
Proactive conservation that defends intact sagebrush cores is a key strategy to reducing the threat invasive annual grasses pose for sagebrush habitat.
This has long been one of WLFW's most-read posts, and we decided it was time for an update to reflect the most current research and tools for managing cheatgrass in sagebrush country.
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| Myth Busters: Conservation Stewardship Program
FARMERS.GOV POST SHARES (AND CORRECTS) COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE CSP
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The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is sometimes misunderstood. It is perceived by some as complicated or not for small operations, and neither of those perceptions is true.
CSP is designed to help you take your existing conservation efforts on your operation to the next higher level while maintaining your current ones. It’s supposed to help you add to what you’re already doing, either by enhancing your current practices or adding new ones.
Learn more about CSP and how it can work for your operation in this post by Karen Woodrich, Deputy Chief of Programs for the USDA-NRCS.
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AFTER SETTING ROOTS 90 YEARS AGO, NRCS CONTINUES TO GROW ITS CONSERVATION LEGACY
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Today and into the future, the hardworking folks at the NRCS are continuing Hugh Hammond Bennett’s legacy – helping people help the land – by implementing conservation practices to conserve air, water, soil, and habitat. In fact, many of the conservation activities the agency studied and refined in the days of Bennett such as terracing, cover and strip cropping, contour planting, grassed waterways and crop rotation, are practices still used today.
Learn more about the NRCS, its Dust Bowl roots, and how it continues to help landowners, farmers, and ranchers today in this great post from the NRCS and through the videos included in the post.
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Our Amazing Grasslands - Central Grasslands Roadmap Video
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CENTRAL GRASSLANDS ROADMAP
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The Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative is a partnership of groups, including the NRCS and WLFW, with the goal of elevating grasslands conservation in North America.
This great video, produced by the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition shares a little about the Central Grasslands Roadmap and the importance of grassland conservation. From agriculture to recreation, our grasslands provide so much.
WLFW's Great Plains Grasslands science advisor, Dirac Twidwell, is one of the voices featured in the video.
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| The Central Grasslands: Backbone of America Video
CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY SHARES WHY GRASSLAND CONSERVATION IS CRITICAL
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Did you know that North America's central grasslands once covered more than 700 million acres, but only about 1/3 of this biome remains today? Or that woody species encroachment into the central grasslands has resulted in $4.5 billion in lost forage production since 1990?
This powerful video highlights the important role grasslands play in America and the immense conservation opportunity they present.
Produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the stunning video captures the beauty and plight of North America's grasslands. Powerful and informative, this video is worth a watch.
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Life on the Range produced this great video about the Bruneau-Owyhee Sagebrush Habitat (BOSH) Project and it recently won an award from the Idaho Press Club. The BOSH project is the largest sagebrush-habitat restoration project in the country with a restoration target of more than 600,000 acres of public and private land.
Want more BOSH news? Check out this great interview with Connor White, a former Sage Grouse Initiative Strategic Watershed Team Member and now BOSH project lead for Pheasants Forever.
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Tuda Crews runs the Ute Creek Ranch in New Mexico with her husband. They recently placed 9,000 acres of the ranch in a conservation easement to help protect migratory bird habitat. When the Crews moved back to the ranch more than 20 years ago, they found 17 species of birds on the property. Today, thanks to two decades of conservation, they often count 100 different species on the ranch. Thanks to their work with the New Mexico Land Conservancy, the birds will find refuge on the ranch for decades to come.
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This story was originally posted by Duckworth and reposted by the Western Landowners Alliance. It shares the story of John Helle who is using prescribed fire to better manage his grasslands and remove invasive annual grasses and encroaching conifer trees. Packed with great visuals, it's worth a read!
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Check out this short listen from Montana Public Radio that shares how conifer encroachment is impacting one of the West's most precious resources: water.
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This short article from the National Park Service's Winter 2024-2025 Park Science magazine summarizes one of the research articles feature in the Sagebrush Conservation Gateway. The article highlights how directing scarce NPS and USFWS restoration resources to conserving sagebrush cores in parks and refuges is the best approach for maintaining healthy and resilient sagebrush habitat in these important public lands.
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Working Lands for Wildlife is the Natural Resources Conservation Service's premier approach for conserving America's working lands to benefit people, wildlife, and rural communities. In the West, WLFW is guided by two, action-based frameworks for conservation. The framework approach is designed to increase conservation and restoration of rangelands by addressing major threats to rangeland health and through the implementation of conservation measures that limit soil disturbance, support sustainable grazing management, promote the strategic use of prescribed fire, and support native grassland species. Together, the frameworks leverage the power of voluntary, win-win conservation solutions to benefit people and wildlife from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
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