Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
|
|
|
Predicting Rangeland Fire in the Great Basin
Two recent papers in Rangeland Ecology and Management focus on emerging science and practice that can help managers prepare for and manage rangeland fire
|
The sprawling geography of the Great Basin covers most of Nevada and parts of Utah, Oregon, California, and Idaho. Large wildfires — those burning thousands of acres in one fell swoop — have increased over recent decades in this region, impacting wildlife habitat, water quality, recreational opportunities, livestock production, and more.
Accurately predicting the likelihood of a large fire in this remote and rugged region, particularly ahead of the upcoming fire season, would provide land and fire managers with critical insight that could help prevent or minimize lasting impacts to the region’s imperiled sagebrush habitats.
New research funded by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and supported by Working Lands for Wildlife does just that.
Researcher, Joe Smith, developed annually updated maps that predict where large rangeland fires in the Great Basin might occur, given an ignition. The maps are publicly available and Smith plans to update them annually in advance of the Great Basin fire season (June-September).
NRCS sagebrush ecosystem specialist, Jeremy Maestas, expanded on Smith's work to highlight how managers can utilize Smith's maps to better prepare for rangeland fire at the start of each fire season.
|
|
|
Behind the Science
Learn more about the REM papers
|
Learn more about the two papers just out in Rangeland Ecology and Management. Access both papers, figures, and more.
|
| Ask the Experts
Hear directly from the researchers
|
We sat down with lead authors of both papers to dig deeper into the science and implications this research has for the Great Basin and beyond.
|
|
|
Sagebrush Conservation Design Framework Lays Out Spatial Strategy for Saving Sagebrush Country
New report, issued by the USGS and partners including WLFW, highlights a proactive spatial strategy for defending and growing sagebrush cores at an ecosystem-wide scale
|
On September 22, the U.S. Geological Survey and partners released a report called: A Sagebrush Conservation Design Framework to Proactively Restore America’s Sagebrush Biome. With contributions from 21 different experts, including Jeremy Maestas, the sagebrush ecosystem specialist for the USDA-NRCS, the report provides a fresh look at the state of sagebrush rangelands at a biome scale. Leveraging new satellite-derived data, including the Rangeland Analysis Platform, the report maps intact, healthy sagebrush rangeland “cores” across the western U.S. and tracks where specific landscape-scale threats have degraded sagebrush rangelands over the last 20 years.
The report reveals that large, complex threats including exotic annual grass invasion and conifer encroachment are responsible for nearly three-quarters of sagebrush rangeland degradation. Importantly, the report also provides a common Sagebrush Conservation Design to focus proactive management and restoration efforts where they will be most effective at stemming sagebrush habitat loss and degradation. The Design’s maps support widespread adoption of the “Defend and Grow the Core” spatial strategy to tackle landscape-scale threats that is the foundation of the Working Lands for Wildlife’s Framework for Conservation Action in the Sagebrush Biome.
Like WLFW’s Framework, the report provides critical data, context, and information that will lead to proactive solutions to prevent degradation of intact sagebrush cores and grow them over time through active restoration. The report shows that maintaining and growing sagebrush cores is vital for sagebrush-obligate wildlife. Despite range-wide declines, sage grouse populations were actually found to be increasing in core sagebrush areas. This vision of healthy rangelands that host abundant wildlife populations while also providing economic, recreational, and other services to human communities is shared by the multiple groups that contributed to this report, including the NRCS and Working Lands for Wildlife.
|
|
|
National Cattlemen's Beef Association Highlights Great Plains Grassland Initiatives in Upcoming Show
|
NCBA's flagship show, Cattlemen to Cattlemen, is featuring Great Plains ranchers and NRCS's GPGI efforts from three Great Plains states
|
NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen is the leading TV show for beef producers to receive cattle industry news, education and information. As part of cooperative work with the USDA-NRCS, NRCS regularly provides content ideas for the show.
In 2022, NRCS proposed featuring the NRCS Great Plains Grasslands Initiative, currently launched in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and with plans to expand to South Dakota. Led by Working Lands for Wildlife, the GPGI is a strategic approach to battling the encroachment of trees into grasslands, focusing not on where trees are the worst, but instead on protecting core areas of intact rangelands. Ranchers - who have been leading these efforts - are key partners in this effort as working lands are the linchpin to connecting this conservation work across state-identified target areas.
NCBA is dedicating an entire hour-long episode of the Cattlemen to Cattlemen show to discussing this work. The full one-hour episode is planned to air on Tuesday, Nov 1st at 8:30pm EST on RFD-TV 13 and the Cattlemen to Cattlemen YouTube Channel. Stay tuned to WLFW's social media (Facebook and Twitter) for updates.
⇓ Watch two short clips from the upcoming show below ⇓
|
|
|
Jeff Nichols, NRCS Range Specialist
Segment highlights how NRCS can help producers tackle woody encroachment
|
Jeff Nichols, the NRCS state range management specialist for Nebraska, discusses how the NRCS can help produces improve their operations through conservation partnerships with the NRCS. Nichols focuses specifically on eastern redcedar encroachment and the NRCS programs that can help producers recover productive grazing lands lost to trees.
|
| Shelly Kelly, Sandhills Task Force
Segment emphasizes the importance of partnerships in voluntary conservation
|
Shelly Kelly, the executive director of the Nebraska Sandhills Task Force talks about the group's efforts and how they work with partners to promote voluntary conservation on working lands. As Kelly notes, these partnerships create holistic solutions that benefit landowners, communities, wildlife, and grasslands.
|
|
| Find more news and resources at SageGrouseInitiative.com
|
|
|
The New York Times recently featured the story of a Nevada family who have embraced beavers as a natural way to help reduce the impacts of drought, prevent destruction from wildfires, and increase water availability on their ranch.
|
CBS Morning recently covered scientists in California and Utah who are reintroducing beavers for their drought reducing, wildfire fighting, and habitat improving engineering skills. Worth a watch!
|
The Genascis family partnered with the NRCS to leverage technical and financial assistance through the NRCS's Wetland Reserve Easement program. The easement ensures the land will remain undeveloped while technical and financial assistance improved the multi-generational ranch's valuable wetlands for wildlife and livestock.
|
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Administration awarded $2.8 billion to 70 Climate-Smart projects in the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program. Initially slated for $1 billion in funding, the program has been expanded to a total investment of $3 billion due to unprecedented demand and high-quality projects from the first round of funding. The proposals include plans to match on average over 50% of the federal investment with nonfederal funds. A second pool of awards will be announced in the coming months.
|
A farmers.gov account provides self-service opportunities to Farm Service Agency and NRCS customers through a secure, authenticated access process. In this Ask the Expert, Tyler Kendall, management and program analyst for the NRCS answers a few questions about USDA’s farmers.gov customer portal. Tyler helps lead the effort to provide personalized customer information via farmers.gov. Services offered through the portal include: access, view, download, and print all of your conservation documents including your conservation plans, contracts, and plan maps. Contract documents can be conveniently eSigned in farmers.gov and the feature is mobile enabled so you can sign your documents from the field.
|
The Island Ranch in California's Sierra Valley hosts thousands of migrating birds each year. The ranch's wetlands are a key stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway and thanks to the ranch's partnership with the NRCS, the birds will forever have a place to touch down. Through the NRCS' Wetland Reserve Easement program, the ranch owners were able to get technical assistance, funding, and long-term protection for these critical wetlands.
|
This great video from Partnerscapes highlights the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program of the USFWS. Like Working Lands for Wildlife, this program works with landowners to voluntarily conserve and improve habitat for wildlife, fish, and to improve the landowner's operation. Another great example of win-win, voluntary conservation.
|
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has extended the application deadline for Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Cooperative Agreements (GLCI) from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, 2022. USDA is investing up to $12 million in partnerships that expand access to conservation technical assistance for livestock producers and increase the use of conservation practices on grazing lands. Learn more here or via link in title above ⇑.
|
Christopher Johnson, a Bahamian who spent his summer in Wyoming's sagebrush country as a banding intern with Audubon, recently shared his experience in this wonderful post from the Rockies Audubon. As a birder, Johnson was amazed by the diversity of life he found in sagebrush country. Reflecting on his first day in the field, Johnson noted, "Recording 10 brand new bird species and realizing that I hadn't even scratched the surface of the avian diversity was a feeling like no other."
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
|
|
|
This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.
|
| |
|
1783 Buerkle Circle | Saint Paul, MN 55110 US
|
|
|
|
