Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
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Rangeland Analysis Platform Even More Powerful With New 10-meter Dataset
NEW DATASET PROVIDES GREATER ACCURACY AND MORE VEGETATION CLASSES
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Healthy rangelands are essential for ensuring grazing and forage productivity, reducing wind erosion and wildfire risks, and supporting wildlife populations.
Maintaining these rangelands can be challenging. Early signs of soil and vegetation stress, the spread of invasive grass, increased risk of wildfire, and the emerging pests might go unnoticed without the proper monitoring and management.
The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) was launched in 2018 and has made advanced remote-sensing technology more accessible to ranchers, producers, land managers, and researchers, revolutionizing the way these vast landscapes can be managed and monitored.
Recently, researchers made significant improvements to RAP by using higher resolution images captured by the Sentinel-2 mission, which provides a 10-meter cover dataset. The Sentinel-2 mission utilizes three satellites to produce more detailed images with finer resolution and faster updates than the previous 30-meter datasets. These enhanced images offer a more precise understanding of rangeland vegetation structure and composition, covering the period from 2018 to 2024.
This new satellite dataset allows RAP to provide new cover information, specifically invasive species, pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, as well as the distribution of bare ground. These new RAP layers allow ranchers and land managers to detect and manage invasive species spread and consequent wildfire risks, woody species encroachment, wildlife habitat condition, and wind erosion risks with high precision across the western United States.
It will also enable ranchers to maintain and improve rangeland productivity. For example, ranchers and ARS researchers are working together to develop new tools that use RAP, in conjunction with other precision ranching tools, to manage cattle movement and forage utilization across extensive rangelands, helping them reduce operational costs and maximize livestock production.
RAP's 30-meter cover data will remain available to its more than 25,000 active users for historical information. However, with the new high-resolution model, users can make more informed management decisions that benefit United States’ agriculture and food production.
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WLFW in the East
WLFW HELPS RESTORE REMNANT PRAIRIE IN MISSOURI FOR QUAIL AND OTHER WILDLIFE
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On his first visit to Bruce and Marla Mestad's property, Pheasants and Quail Forever Senior Farm Bill Wildlife Biologist Joshua Marshall says its clearings were primarily cool season grasses. Even so, he found a variety of native plants like wild quinine, roundhead lespedeza, pale purple coneflower, and rough blazing star.
The presence of these native plants was an indication that a seed bank of prairie species still existed in the soil and that given the right conditions, dormant prairie could stand a chance of coming back to life.
Through their partnership with the NRCS and its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Mestads are addressing management challenges on their property.
Future improvements include reducing woody encroachment on the edges of openings and treating invasive species such as autumn olive and white poplar. The Mestads also employ a regular prescribed fire schedule to assist in suppressing undesirable plants and maintaining the health of their prairie.
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| WLFW in the East
WLFW WORKS WITH LANDOWNERS TO BENEFIT QUAIL AND MONARCHS
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Building habitat on private land isn’t easy. That’s why Barb Heyen built a conservation team to help transform 120 acres of her property in southern Illinois, from low-quality pasture to quail and monarch butterfly focused habitat. Her deep connection to the land motivated her to preserve its ancestral value and create resources for local communities.
After reading an article about monarch conservation, she started on her path towards creating habitat for pollinators and quail.
Because Barb didn’t have the equipment and experience necessary to do the work herself, she reached out to Quail Forever for help.
That partnership became part of a larger conservation team as Barb contacted other agencies and organizations like USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Barb's experience exemplifies the successful collaboration between landowners and NRCS, through Working Lands for Wildlife.
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Wyoming Wildlife Fence Summit Resources Available
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WATCH VIDEOS AND READ ABSTRACTS FROM PRESENTATIONS AT THE WYOMING WILDLIFE FENCE SUMMIT
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This spring, in an effort led by Andrew Jakes with the Wyoming Migration Initiative, experts from Wyoming gathered in a virtual summit to share research, on-the-ground efforts, and outcomes related to wildlife friendly fencing. The event drew 120 participants from western states, and was sponsored by the Wyoming Migration Initiative in collaboration with Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Lessons learned in Wyoming can help conservation practitioners across sagebrush range address the challenges that fences pose to wildlife. Two dozen speakers presented science-based strategies and tools that benefit landowners and big game, including:
- Best uses of pasture fencing
- Options for improving wildlife passage along highways and roads
- Maps that prioritize where to target fence mitigation efforts
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Specific measurements and how-to guides for modifying existing fences
- Ways to get started on virtual fencing
- Funding opportunities for landowners and land managers
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Many people interested in this work may not have been able to make the Summit, so WLFW worked with partners to present the summit videos and materials on our site. Each of the five sessions are broken down into its own video along with abstracts and more information. Thank you to all the Summit partners for helping us share these valuable resources.
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Sagebrush and Grassland Geospatial Visualizations Available via USFWS
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NEW DATASETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO GUIDE STRATEGIC CONSERVATION IN THE SAGEBRUSH BIOME
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Research published in the November 2024 special issue of Rangeland Ecology and Management, features 20 peer-reviewed articles that delve into the science of how, where, and why we are deploying the Sagebrush Conservation Design to conserve the sagebrush biome.
Spatial datasets from these publications are now publicly available for viewing and download through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Grassland & Sagebrush Conservation Portal. This ArcGIS Online platform provides access to maps, apps, data, documents, and other resources for practitioners working in grassland and sagebrush biomes. These resources were developed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, other agencies, and partners to use in planning and implementing conservation actions. Key topics include management of wildfire risk, invasive annual grasses, conifer encroachment, and sagebrush ecological integrity.
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Find more news and resources at WLFW.org
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Playa Lakes Join Venture is hiring Playa and Water Conservation Outreach Specialists for eastern New Mexico and Texas. These positions will support the PLJV's playa and water conservation efforts in key geographies. Additional opportunities in Kansas are also open for applicants. Learn more and apply for any of the positions via the link in title above.
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This great story from our friends at the IWJV digs into how targeted applications of herbicides can provide real results for rangeland professionals battling cheatgrass and other invasive annual grasses. Cheatgrass and other IAG are the single-largest cause of sagebrush degradation, making effective treatments critical for people and wildlife across the biome.
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Join Aubrey J.D. Bettencourt, Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, as she “Dishes the Dirt” on how the agency empowers America’s farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners to make critical investments in their operations and local communities. This video series shows how NRCS provides voluntary, locally led, science-based conservation assistance.
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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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