Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
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Western WLFW Lead, Tim Griffiths, and Montana-NRCS State Conservationist, Tom Watson, Featured in New Podcast
THE TWO-PART PODCAST FROM "LAND INVESTOR" DOES A GREAT JOB EXPLAINING HOW THE NRCS WORKS WITH LANDOWNERS AND HOW VOLUNTARY CONSERVATION HAS MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN SAGEBRUSH COUNTRY
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Tom Watson, the state conservationist for the USDA-NRCS in Montana, and Tim Griffiths, western lead for Working Lands for Wildlife, recently sat down with Matt and Ryan from the Land Investor Podcast to talk all things NRCS, Working Lands for Wildlife, and more.
The Land Investor Podcast is geared towards landowners, ranchers, and others who own or manage working lands, so all the episodes have helpful information for people involved in working lands.
The conversation in these two podcasts covers different NRCS programs, like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), the history of the Sage Grouse Initiative and Working Lands for Wildlife, the science investments NRCS has made in how to best conserve western rangeland for wildlife and people, how landowners can work with the NRCS and partners, and what benefits these partnerships provide to working lands in the West.
Between them, Tim and Tom have decades of experience in the NRCS and in western conservation generally. This podcast is a great listen for:
- Landowners with questions about how the NRCS works and how an NRCS partnership would benefit a working operation,
- Conservation professionals who want to learn more about how the NRCS works with partners to implement conservation in the West,
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Anyone interested in learning more about the NRCS, WLFW, the threats facing sagebrush country, and the wildlife that share this incredible landscape.
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Publication Alert: American Burying Beetle Abundance Rises Following Long-term Conservation
NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THIS UNIQUE THREATENED SPECIES BENEFITED FROM GRASSLAND CONSERVATION IN NEBRASKA
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New Working Lands for Wildlife-affiliated research from Caleb Roberts showed that large-scale conservation actions in Nebraska’s Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape have increased the American Burying Beetle (ABB) population.
Roberts and his team compared population counts from long-term studies conducted by the Nebraska Game and Parks Department to changes in land cover from 2007-2019.
The researchers found that perennial grass cover was the only land cover variable that had a strictly positive relationship to ABB abundance. They predicted that beetle populations would double when perennial grass cover reached between 46% and 80%. Conversely, beetle populations declined sharply when rangelands were converted to crop agriculture and when tree cover increased. At just 8-10% tree cover, ABB abundance approached zero across a range of nearly 3,000 acres.
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| Farmers.gov: Ask the Expert with WLFW's Jeremy Maestas
NATIONAL SAGEBRUSH ECOSYSTEM SPECIALIST ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SAGEBRUSH CONSERVATION DESIGN AND THE LATEST SAGEBRUSH SCIENCE.
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In this Ask the Expert, Jeremy answers questions about the Sagebrush Conservation Design (SCD) and the latest sagebrush science highlighted in a special issue of the Society for Range Management’s journal, Rangeland Ecology & Management, which features 20 peer-reviewed articles that use the SCD to provide an actionable path forward to fight common threats to healthy working lands across 14 states in the sagebrush biome.
The interview is a great read for anyone interested in conservation in the sagebrush biome and it details some key take-aways from the 20 research articles that make up the recent special issue of Rangeland Ecology & Management.
Learn more about these articles and access additional resources like interviews with researchers, presentations from the 2024 Society for Range Management conference and more at the Sagebrush Conservation Gateway site.
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WLFW'S INSTAGRAM CHANNEL IS PACKED WITH STUNNING PHOTOS, ENTERTAINING VIDEOS, ENGAGING STORIES, AND MORE. FOLLOW US TODAY!
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Looking for wildlife photos, fun videos, and the latest conservation science? Find it all on our BRAND NEW Working Lands for Wildlife Instagram channel.
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WLFW's Sagebrush Science Advisor David Naugle and Ranchers Stewardship Alliance's Martin Townsend Talk Conservation Easements in Montana
DAVID AND MARTIN SIT DOWN WITH 'LIVE UNDER THE BIG SKY' TO TALK ABOUT NEW RESEARCH THAT SHOWS HOW CONSERVATION EASEMENTS BENEFIT MORE THAN JUST THE WORKING LANDS THEY CONSERVE
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Tune in to this "Live Under the Big Sky" episode to learn more about what's happening in north-central Montana, where recent research, featured in the Sagebrush Conservation Gateway, shows that private land conservation easements extend conservation benefits to other lands nearby.
North-central Montana is home to some of the last remaining sagebrush and grassland cores and to a dedicated group of landowners and partners, including the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, who have used conservation easements to keep working lands in working hands. The conservation benefits of keeping these ranches as productive livestock operations extend to nearby public and private land according to new research the two discuss in the podcast.
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| They Think They're Just Ranching
RANCHERS STEWARDSHIP ALLIANCE SHARES THE STORIES OF LEO BARTHELMESS AND DALE VESETH, RANCHERS IN NORTH-CENTRAL MONTANA WHO WEAVE CONSERVATION INTO THEIR OPERATIONS
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In the vast grasslands of the Northern Great Plains, ranchers have long been the silent stewards of some of America’s most fragile ecosystems. These are people who understand the land in a way few others do—people whose hands are calloused from years of hard work, and whose education often comes from the very soil they nurture.
Barthelmess and Veseth are leaders in a movement that goes beyond the boundaries of their own land.
What they do is far more than land management. By nurturing native grasslands and sagebrush habitats, these ranchers are building biodiversity, protecting soil health, and ensuring the survival of wildlife species that depend on these ecosystems. Their stewardship creates ripples that benefit not only their land but the entire Northern Great Plains.
They aren’t just ranching; they are preserving a legacy, ensuring that this land, and all it holds, endures for future generations.
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Each month, a partnership led by the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition, produces a new video for its "Our Amazing Grassland" series. This video focuses on grassland wildlife in South Dakota and the experiences of the Anderson Family. It's a beautiful and inspiring installment and well worth the seven minute watch time.
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The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service has released a new Tribal Relations Strategy, demonstrating the agency’s commitment to honoring its federal trust relationship with the 574 federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native Villages that have sovereign interest in more than 119 million acres of land across the United States. This strategy builds on many years of listening, working, and consulting with tribes to address their natural resources concerns. NRCS is committed to carrying out its federal trust responsibilities by ensuring that the agency has tribal operations built into its organizational structure.
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In 2021, the USDA-NRCS and the State of Wyoming launched the pilot Migratory Big Game Conservation Initiative, which has now expanded to Montana, Idaho. The pilot program works with landowners to implement conservation efforts that benefit migratory big game like elk, pronghorn, mule deer, and more. To date, the program has conserved 510,000 acres in Wyoming through a mix of conservation practices including fence modifications, annual invasive grass management, and conservation easements.
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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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