Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching
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Working Lands Snapshot: Migratory Big Game
LEARN HOW WE CAN WORK TOGETHER TO CONSERVE THESE ICONIC SPECIES
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Migratory big game are large, native mammals that are popular with wildlife watchers and hunters. The West’s big game species include elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, and bighorn sheep.
These animals travel across the landscape in search of food. Herds of migratory big game are emblems and economic drivers of the American West.
Big game are important components of the ecosystem and our economy. They provide food for carnivores like bears, as well as scavengers like eagles and coyotes. Migratory big game also influence plant communities by fertilizing soil and dispersing seeds through their feces.
Humans have relied on big game for their meat and hides for millennia, even following or living along migration paths to harvest these mammals. Today, big game herds contribute about $1 billion each year to the national economy through hunting and tourism. In western states like Montana and Wyoming, wildlife-related tourism and hunting are among the top income generators.
When big game are free to migrate, the landscape can support a larger, healthier population of these animals. For instance, when herds move frequently, plants have time to recover and re-grow, particularly on winter range. This benefits ranchers’ livestock, as well as wildlife that rely on rangeland plants for food.
Learn more about the species that help define the American West, including how the USDA-NRCS and Working Lands for Wildlife are working with landowners to improve the migratory corridors that big game rely on.
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They're Baack!
REINVASION IS NOT INVASION AGAIN, IT'S FASTER AND MORE AGGRESSIVE
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New research led by WLFW-affiliated researcher, Dillon Fogarty at North Dakota State University, is helping fill in gaps around how trees reinvade grasslands after tree removal treatments.
The research shows that woody species move into grasslands that were previously treated for encroachment at faster and more aggressive rates than rates of trees invading intact grasslands.
The team’s findings help managers develop restoration plans that provide durable and long-term conservation results.
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| Using Early Warning Signals and RAD to Manage Woody Encroachment in the Great Plains
NEW RESEARCH BETTER INFORMS HOLISTIC GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT
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New research from WLFW-affiliated researcher Rheinhardt Scholtz at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln demonstrates how new technologies like the Rangeland Analysis Platform and the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) ecological management framework can be paired to better inform management decisions and produce longer-lasting, more durable conservation results across the Great Plains.
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APPLY TODAY TO LEAD THE WESTERN WLFW COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
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Western Working Lands for Wildlife, in partnership with Pheasants Forever, Inc., is seeking a dynamic leader for its communications team. This is a contract position with Pheasants Forever, working in support of the USDA-NRCS's Working Lands for Wildlife efforts in the Western U.S.
To apply, see the RFP and submit your response to Pheasants Forever by July 15, 2025.
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Funding Opportunity: Monarchs & Pollinators
NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION GRANT OPPORTUNITY
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The Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund supports work that advances the conservation of the monarch butterfly and other at-risk native insect pollinators. Originally named the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund, the fund added the term ‘Pollinators’ to its title in 2018 to reflect an increased focus on a broader set of priority species.
This grant opportunity includes:
- Implementation of technical assistance to increase the number of private landowners engaged in monarch butterfly and pollinator conservation practices on working lands.
- Habitat improvements to create and sustain interconnected monarch and pollinator habitat.
DEADLINE: July 8, 2025
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Funding Opportunity: Rocky Mountain Rangelands
NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION GRANT OPPORTUNITY
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Working closely and on a voluntary basis with private landowners, the Rocky Mountain Rangelands Program conserves and restores habitat for wildlife adapted to harsh climates that often require large open spaces to sustain their populations.
This grant opportunity focuses on
three major conservation strategies:
- Improve management and restoration of sagebrush rangelands to benefit sagebrush-obligate and other associated species.
- Secure important ungulate migrations across the landscape with specific focus on transportation conflicts, winter range and stopover sites.
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Restore habitat and expand occupancy of wetland birds and native fish.
DEADLINE: AUGUST 7, 2025
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POLLINATORS ARE CRITICAL TO PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS, SUSTAINING BILLIONS IN AGRICULTURAL REVENUE ANNUALLY.
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Find more news and resources at WLFW.org
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One year after announcing a collaborative vision for a grassbank campus, the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are proud to share a significant step forward with the purchase of a portion of the Webb Ranch near Loring, Montana. This 7,758-acre property will become a living platform for RSA’s growing mission to create new opportunities for beginning ranchers while fostering mentorship from seasoned producers.
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Managing landscapes for species that need sagebrush, for species that need woodlands, and for those that use both is complicated business. This great post from our friends at the Intermountain West Joint Venture does a great job of explaining how land managers balance sagebrush and pinyon-juniper habitat while benefiting agriculture, wildlife, and people.
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Learn about the Sunrise W Land and Cattle Company, run by father-son duo Jim and Stephen West, and located in McCulloch County, TX. The Wests have worked with the NRCS to implement regenerative farming and grazing practices that have benefited production across their ranch. With funding assistance from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and technical assistance from their local NRCS office, the Wests have improved fencing, developed water resources, and managed brush and trees, all of which makes their operation more profitable and productive.
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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. Conservation measures implemented through the frameworks 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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