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Over 60 million acres of grass remain in the Northern Great Plains (NGP), arguably more than any other region in North America’s central grasslands biome. The NGP makes up just 10% of the biome but provides over 52% of core breeding areas for some of the most imperiled grassland birds, making it a continental stronghold … Read more

Southwestern North Dakota is a region unknown to many. Ask a passerby what the landscape looks like and you will get a variety of answers. Some of the responses may include dry, flat, grassy, badlands, open, rolling hills, or ‘I have no idea’. A hidden gem in this unknown area is the Stewart Lake National … Read more

On a cool, rainy day in August, roughly 300 people from across the continent converged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Crow, and Shoshone people, to attend the 6th Biennial America’s Grassland Conference. Hosted by the National Wildlife Federation and the University of Wyoming, the conference emphasized connecting both people and … Read more

RSVP Overview and Enrollment: World Wildlife Fund’s Ranch Systems and Viability Planning Network (RSVP) takes a community-based approach to preserving the open space, ecological integrity, and community livelihoods of the Northern Great Plains (NGP) ecosystem. By centering the goals of individual ranchers and local communities which own and manage over 70% of the NGP, WWF … Read more

It started with a “maybe someday” wish that I mumbled to myself as I closed an email from Integrity Soils about the new four month “CREATE” program on soil health coaching approaches hosted by Nicole Masters. This 22-week program was designed to train and empower agricultural consultants and coaches in the theory, principles and practices behind healthy, … Read more

In early 2021, Pheasants Forever (PF) successfully concluded a generous grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) awarded via their Northern Great Plains initiative. During the three-year grant period, PF worked closely with the USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) program, and the South Dakota (SD) Department of Game, Fish and Parks … Read more

Erin Fairbank is the new Conservation Programs Coordinator for the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture. With the NGPJV, she will be working on creating and maintaining partnerships, project collaboration, and overseeing funding programs. Erin has extensive experience working with habitat and bird conservation programs, agricultural operations, and is partnership-oriented. Her background includes over 20 years of … Read more

The 2022 State of the Birds report was released in October with a sobering and urgent prognosis for birds. In the U.S., more than half of all bird species are showing population declines and 70 tipping point species have lost half or more of their populations in the last 50 years. Grassland birds are a … Read more

This spring, American Bird Conservancy, North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGF), and Intermountain Bird Observatory partnered to equip nine Long-billed Curlews with satellite and cellular tracking devices in the Dakotas. Curlews have lost much of their historical range; identifying key habitat features will help land managers to make decisions that stabilize and improve the … Read more

Pheasants Forever has completed on-the-ground activities within Phases I & II of the grant ‘Using Decision-Support Tools to Deliver Grassland Bird Conservation.’ This grant was developed by the USFWS Habitat and Population Evaluation Team (HAPET) as a way to deliver a multitude of grazing systems. Partners collaborating on this grant include the U.S. Fish and … Read more