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
Long-billed Curlews are an iconic grassland bird of the Northern Great Plains. Historically, curlews occurred across the NGPJV region of North Dakota but now their range is mostly restricted to Golden Valley, Billings, Slope and Bowman counties. Curlews continue to be found throughout other parts of the Northern Great Plains. Identifying key features the species … Read more
“Watch out for snakes.” This was the greeting we received as we pulled our convoy into a distant stretch of prairie under a sunny sky in eastern Wyoming. We were in a place where the skies and grasslands were vast, with a herd of cattle contentedly grazing on the low hillsides. The fact that we … Read more
As I sit down to write this article, the price for a barrel of oil continues to decline and is now less than $92 per barrel. That is a welcome relief to those of us who pay at the pump and is an indication that the demand for crude is declining due to a multitude … Read more
Since Pheasants Forever’s inception 40 years ago, they have built unbreakable bonds with conservation and agricultural minded communities. In my opinion, none are as unique as the partnerships formed with local, rancher-led groups like Winnett ACES based in Petroleum County, Montana. Winnett ACES is a grassroots non-profit organization that is dedicated to conservation and agricultural … Read more
