Using Prescribed Fire To Maintain And Restore Grasslands in Oklahoma

CHUCK COFFEY’S LIFELONG MISSION IS TO RESTORE HIS GRASSLANDS BY GETTING RID OF CEDAR TREES. HIS FAVORITE TOOL? FIRE. 

When Chuck Coffey tells you about his family’s award-winning ranching operation in southern Oklahoma, he begins with the grass.

“It’s your plants that support everything, including the animals,” says Chuck. “Grass comes first, cows second.” 

The biggest obstacle to growing grass—and making a profit—on the Coffey’s 30,000 acres of owned and leased land in the Arbuckle Mountains is the spread of eastern redcedar.

Their success restoring grasslands stems from combining a trio of techniques: mechanical removal, prescribed fire, and targeted herbicide treatments.

“Fire helps maintain grasslands,” Chuck says. “The three together help reclaim.”

Both Chuck and Seth are trained ecologists who take a scientific approach to rangeland management. They use bulldozers to remove cedars in heavily infested areas, followed by prescribed burns that eliminate remaining brush and reinvigorate perennial plants. Then they follow up with herbicide applications to nix any seeds or seedlings that survived the fire.

Did You Miss WLFW's Online Seminar About The Mesic Analysis Platform?

CHECK OUT A REPLAY OF OUR SCIENCE TO SOLUTIONS SEMINAR FEATURING THE MESIC ANALYSIS PLATFORM

On August 13, WLFW hosted our second Science to Solutions Seminar that featured the new Mesic Analysis Platform. More than 250 folks from 90 different organizations joined us. They learned about mesic resource degradation and how WLFW's new Mesic Analysis Platform, or MAP, can help land managers and practitioners better target mesic restoration across the sagebrush biome.

If you missed the seminar, we've got it uploaded to our website and our YouTube Channel. Click the button below to watch it and/or our previous seminar on conifer encroachment in western rangelands. 

America's Tree Canopy: Now In 3D

MAPPING APPLICATION MODELS HEIGHT OF TREES AND SHRUBS ACROSS THE LOWER 48 

Researchers from the University of Montana and Working Lands for Wildlife have released a new open-access dataset that maps vegetation structure at sub-meter resolution across the contiguous United States.

Designed to complement the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP), the Canopy Height Model, as the app is called, adds vegetation height and structure to the cover and production maps already used by land managers across the West. Read the research paper about the model and research that went into it. 

News Station Features Canopy Height Model 

LEARN HOW THE APPLICATION IS CHANGING RANGELAND AND WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT

Dr. Scott Morford, a WLFW-affiliated researcher at the University of Montana and the lead developer of the Canopy Height Model, was recently featured in a news segment on Missoula's KPAX.

In addition, fire ecologist Dr. Anthony Marcozzi shared how the U.S. Forest Service sees the app being especially helpful in managing wildfires by helping inform managers about canopy structure and size, information that can help determine where a fire may spread or how severely it may burn. 

New Research: Ecological Cores Are Where Great Plains Grassland Bird Populations Are Stable Or Growing

POPULATION LOSSES MIRROR WOODY ENCROACHMENT AND LAND-USE CONVERSION, TWO OF THE LARGEST DRIVERS OF ECOSYSTEM CHANGE IN GREAT PLAINS GRASSLANDS

Across the Great Plains, bird species are declining. In fact, of all terrestrial guilds, grassland birds have suffered some of the most dramatic declines in the past 50 years.

New research from Caleb Roberts, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, Arkansas Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, examined how these losses are clustered spatially and by species, while also exploring where bird populations have increased or remained stable.

They found that across all 50 species, abundance generally declined, but in some core areas, specifically the central Plains, abundance remained stable. Population losses were mostly clustered along the southeastern edge of the Plains, the same geography where woody expansion is most acute.

These findings align with a “Defend the Core” strategy that prioritizes proactive maintenance of intact grasslands over reactive conservation in already degraded areas. They also align with WLFW's Framework for Conservation Action in the Great Plains, which articulates a shared vision of conservation that benefits livestock producers and wildlife.

The authors suggest it is time to create a Great Plains Grasslands Conservation Design modeled after the Sagebrush Conservation Design to further guide proactive conservation that improves livestock production and boosts bird populations.

Pair Of New Film's From Univesity of Wyoming's Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems (IMAGINE)

FILMS HIGHLIGHT EFFORTS IN NEVADA AND NORTHEASTERN WYOMING

Two new films from IMAGINE share how land managers, wildlife biologists, ranchers, and others are battling invasive annual grasses in Nevada and Wyoming. Called "Nevada Against Invasive Annual Grasses" and "Northeastern Wyoming Holds the Line on Ventenata and Medusahead," the films are part of a series produced by IMAGINE highlighting efforts to battle invasive annual grasses across the West. 

According to the Sagebrush Conservation Design, invasive annual grasses are the largest driver of ecological change in the sagebrush biome. Cheatgrass and other invasive annual grasses, like ventenata and medusahead featured in the Wyoming film, green up early and dry out long before other plants. This robs precious soil moisture when other plants need it most. The fine, dry invasive grasses fuel severe wildfires that are colonized by more invasive grasses after they’re out. This creates an ecologically damaging cycle that is difficult to break.

Films like these are critical to educating people about invasive annual grasses and about the techniques that land managers are using to fight back against this serious threat. You can watch all of IMAGINE's invasive annual grass films here. 

U.S. Forest Service: Rewetting floodplains rebuilds riparian plant communities

The U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station recently published research on the efficacy of two low-tech, process-based mesic restoration practices: beaver dam analogs and plug-and-ponds. They found that the techniques help reconnect floodplains and restore vegetation. 

Maggie Miller & Grindstone Cattle CO win conservation award

Longtime WLFW friend and Wyoming rancher Maggie Miller was recently awarded the 2026 Kurt Bucholz Conservation Award from the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust. 

Miller’s conservation leadership extends beyond her own ranch. She earned national recognition as a landowner spokesperson for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Sage Grouse Initiative and served as an advocate for landowners and agricultural interests within the Sublette Mule Deer Migration Corridor. She also worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to implement a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for sage-grouse on her property. 

USA Today: How science and conservationists are saving sage grouse

Author and filmmaker Kris Millgate spent years on her film "Sage Wisdom”, which explores how conservationists, landowners, and agencies like the USDA-NRCS are working together to conserve and restore sagebrush country. This great story from USA Today highlights some of those efforts, and features WLFW-affiliated voices like Connor White and Julie Kraft. 

The Working Lands for Wildlife partnership supports the USDA-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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