Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
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A Land Conservation Model To Follow: Green River Valley, Wyoming
IN SOUTHWEST WYOMING, LANDOWNERS HAVE PROTECTED 212 SQUARE-MILES OF INTACT SAGEBRUSH RANGELANDS THROUGH CONSERVATION EASEMENTS, FUNDED IN PART BY THE USDA-NRCS.
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Two decades ago, landowners, scientists, conservationists, and agency staff in Sublette County, Wyoming began conserving core sagebrush rangelands through private land easements in the Green River Basin.
Today, more than 136,000 acres of core sagebrush rangelands, nearly 23% of the private land in the county, have been conserved.
The easements in the Green River Basin protect one of the last, most intact corners of sagebrush country in the world. Through Working Lands for Wildlife and the Sage Grouse Initiative, the USDA-NRCS provides 50% of the funding for many of these projects, catalyzing easements that prevent fragmentation and destruction of productive working lands.
Residential development is the biggest threat to the wildlife and ranching heritage that make the Green River region so special.
Luckily, partners have worked together at the watershed scale to secure conservation easements in the right places, keeping much of this critical sagebrush landscape intact against all odds. These investments support livelihoods, wildlife, and ecosystem services.
The success here is not random: it is very strategic, and the result of concerted collaboration coupled with cutting-edge research and technology.
A shared conservation vision allows NRCS and its local partners to fund easements that safeguard the best wildlife habitat, including vital travel routes and stopover areas for big game like elk, pronghorn and mule deer.
Learn more about this inspiring story and hear from some of the landowners, NRCS staff, and others who have helped make this effort such a success.
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Meet Jennifer Hayward
THE FORMER DISTRICT CONSERVATIONIST AND CURRENT EASEMENT COORDINATOR FOR THE WYOMING NRCS SHARES HER KNOWLEDGE
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"Landowners come to us for any number of reasons. A family might need the easement payment to invest in more land and grow their operation. Someone might want to keep their ranch looking like it did when their family homesteaded it. We ask for their goals and objectives for the property and, depending on their answers, we see if easements can help them achieve these things."
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| Meet Jessica Crowder
AS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WYOMING STOCK GROWERS LAND TRUST, CROWDER PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN CONSERVATION EASEMENTS
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"It would be difficult to get through the process if you didn’t feel a connection to the land, the wildlife, your agricultural operations, and that heritage. It's a major real estate transaction and the commitment is, you know, forever. It inspires passion and those are the ranchers and landowners we are fortunate to work with."
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Meet
Maggie Miller
FORWARD-THINKING LANDOWNERS, LIKE MAGGIE MILLER OF GRINDSTONE CATTLE COMPANY, ARE SHOWING HOW WORKING LANDS AND THRIVING WILDLIFE POPULATIONS CAN COEXIST
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"In the early 2000s, I was seeing explosive growth around Western Wyoming, and that became my inspiration to do more to preserve this incredible landscape.
This is a unique part of Wyoming, and the beauty is in its wildness. I see wildlife daily, whether I’m down on the river or up in the forest."
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| Meet
Brian Jensen
THE ASSISTANT STATE CONSERVATIONIST AND BIG GAME COORDINATOR FOR WYOMING NRCS SHARES HOW SCIENCE HAS GUIDED STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS IN PRIVATE LAND CONSERVATION EASEMENTS
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"Like all things, our success comes down to personal relationships and great people making it happen. In that watershed, I think there is a real culture of conservation and a value system tied to wildlife and wild places. They also appreciate the natural resources and that has resulted in just a lot of partners coalescing around this issue and trying to keep that place what it is: a great place for wildlife."
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| Meet
Bob Budd
AS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WYOMING WILDLIFE AND NATURAL RESOURCE TRUST, BUDD UNDERSTANDS THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSERVING WYOMING'S SPECTACULAR RANGE
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"I think the really compelling thing about Wyoming is that we have tremendous partners across the board. They all pitch in when you need them. They do their part. Everybody plays a little different role at different times, between the state, the land trusts and other conservation organizations. It's the “Wyoming way”—roll up your sleeves, get the job done, do it together."
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Featured Video: Establishing Conservation Easements
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THIS MONTH'S THROWBACK VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS THE GRINDSTONE-SOMMERS EASEMENT, ONE OF THE FIRST CONSERVATION EASEMENTS IN THE GREEN RIVER VALLEY, AND FEATURES MAGGIE MILLER, JENNIFER HAYWARD, AND BOB BUDD
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This video does a great job of sharing the backstory of why and how Maggie Miller and her neighbor Albert Sommers worked with the USDA-NRCS, the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, and other partners to protect more than 19,000 acres of working lands that host sage grouse, pronghorn, mule deer, and other wildlife. In addition, these working lands help maintain the ranching culture and heritage that makes Wyoming so special.
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The Art of Range Podcast: The BOSH Project
WLFW'S JEREMY MAESTAS AND PHEASANT FOREVER'S CONNOR WHITE TALK ABOUT THE BRUNEAU OWYHEE SAGE GROUSE HABITAT PROJECT
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The Bruneau Owyhee Sage Grouse Habitat or BOSH Project is the largest sagebrush habitat restoration project in the country. Partners, including the USDA-NRCS, the BLM, and others are removing conifer trees from 30,000 acres a year across this vast landscape.
To date, partners have removed encroaching conifers from 140,000 acres with a goal of 600,000 acres total.
This excellent podcast from The Art of Range digs into the details of how partners have been able to achieve such scale and what this effort means for the sagebrush biome.
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| Cattle Grazing Helps Pollinators in Sagebrush Rangelands
ENTOMOLOGY TODAY HIGHLIGHTS WLFW-SUPPORTED RESEARCH ABOUT POLLINATORS AND GRAZING
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Recently published research from Hayes Goosey, a researcher with Montana State University, and David Naugle, WLFW's science advisor for the sagebrush biome and professor at the University of Montana, was highlighted in this excellent article from Entomology Today.
The researchers found that ground-nesting bees, which play a critical role in pollination, were 2-3 times more abundant in pastures that had been grazed than in pastures that had been left idle. More than 70% of ground-nesting bees require bare ground to make their nests and rear their young.
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Join Quail Forever and WLFW for a monthly webinar series focused on Bobwhite quail, the focal species of WLFW's Northern Bobwhite, Grasslands, and Savannas Framework for Conservation Action. The webinars are open to anyone and will continue for the next several months, on the second Thursday of the month. Mark your calendars for October 10th's webinar or register here.
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This great story from our partners at the Intermountain West Joint Venture highlights how the USDA-NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is making applying low-tech process-based restoration practices like beaver dam analogs an approachable solution for Utah landowners. These practices restore natural hydrological processes and keep water on the landscape longer, allowing it to soak into the soil and boost vegetation productivity later in the summer when uplands dry out.
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This inspiring storymap and video from Partners in the Sage highlights how one landowner in New Mexico worked with the USFWS's Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program to make fencing friendlier for migratory big game like elk, pronghorn, and mule deer. Modifying fences to make them safer for wildlife is expensive and cost-sharing programs through USFWS and NRCS makes it possible for landowners to upgrade their fences, making them safer for wildlife and less costly to maintain over time.
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Experts with NRCS, Virginia Tech, and The Xerces Society assessed NRCS’s voluntary conservation practices for pollinator benefits. Findings indicate the 51 NRCS conservation practices of focus account for 2.5% of the nation’s seminatural habitat and 3.9% of the national pollinator supply. Habitat is a key focus for conservationists and pollinator-minded agricultural producers alike. This study quantifies the effectiveness of NRCS conservation practices in creating or restoring seminatural habitat – areas including pasture/hay/grass, shrubland, forest land, and wetlands – deemed useful for pollinators. Watch a webinar about this study for more information or read the NRCS post through the link above.
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This great story from Mountain Journal highlights how partners are working together in Montana to make fencing more friendly for migrating big game like pronghorn, elk, and mule deer. With funding from the USDA-NRCS, the BLM, the Department of Interior, and with the help of dedicated volunteers, the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership and National Wildlife Federation, who are leading the effort, have removed or upgraded more than 40 miles of fencing in Montana's Beaverhead County. Projects like this provide a clear benefit to migrating wildlife and also reduce the costs of repairing and maintaining fences that are damaged by wildlife. Here at WLFW, we call that win-win conservation at its best.
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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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