Conservation in Action

Did you know?

Nearly 3 billion birds have been lost in North America since 1970. Roughly 25% of those were grassland birds.

Private Lands Grassland Initiatives

There are many unique technical and financial programs available for landowners, although program details often change. We encourage producers to work with members of our Conservation Delivery Network to develop a personalized project that best leverages current program resources. Below, we list some of the most relevant efforts of our partners.


Montana Big Game Habitat Improvement Project RCPP Lead Partner: Pheasants Forever
	This project addresses threats to big game migration corridors and winter ranges through outreach, technical assistance, and producer contracts. Partners work with producers to improve grazing operations, restore grassland habitats, and retain intact rangelands, with additional benefits to plant productivity and health, and grassland resiliency.
North Dakota Meadowlark Initiative RCPP Lead Partner: North Dakota Game and Fish Department Funding Amount: $7,111,458 Funding Pool: CCA Critical Conservation Area (if applicable): Prairie Grasslands Region
	The Meadowlark Initiative is a new statewide strategy focused on two goals in North Dakota: 1) improve, increase and connect wildlife habitat, and 2) support the sustainability of new and existing livestock ranches. Fourteen project partners have agreed to pool contributions to leverage RCPP funding using an innovative spatial modeling approach to prioritize land management and rental conservation activities. The partners aim to convert 20,000 acres of marginal cropland to diverse native perennial vegetation; enhance 50,000 acres of existing and reconstructed native grasslands; and restore and enhance 10,000 acres of wetlands within reconstructed grassland complexes.
Building Ranch Resiliency in SD and NE RCPP Lead Partner: World Wildlife Fund Lead State: South Dakota Partner State: Nebraska Funding Amount: $1,428,571 Funding Pool: CCA Critical Conservation Area (if applicable): Prairie Grasslands Region
	By 2024, this partnership of eight organizations will increase rangeland resiliency on 40 South Dakota and Nebraska ranches. The diverse partnership will contribute expertise on grazing management, wildlife habitat improvement, and water development to improve range condition. A subset of the participating producers will be enrolled, on a voluntary basis, in World Wildlife Fund's Ranch Systems Viability Planning project through which ranchers gain expertise in financial strategies, marketing, diversification, and estate planning.
South Dakota Habitat Pays Lead Partner: South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks
	Habitat Pays helps landowners develop and fund wildlife habitat where it makes the most sense.
Working Grasslands Initiative Lead Partner: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks
	Conserving Montana’s working grasslands is a 5-year special initiative designed to help retain and enhance native grasslands by targeting and leveraging voluntary, incentive-based assistance programs for private landowners as well as the research needed to identify the needs of species of concern
Sustainable Ranching Initiative Lead Partner: World Wildlife Fund
	The Sustainable Ranching Initiative, started in 2011, works with landowners, corporations, industry-groups, NGOs, and government agencies to: protect lands from grassland conversion, improve management on working lands, and restore cropland or degraded lands back to native grassland.
Conservation Ranching Initiative Lead Partner: Audubon Partner States: Colorado, Missouri and Montana Funding Amount: $3,250,000 Partner Contribution: $6,027,763
	The National Audubon Society will build on a successful NRCS Conservation Innovation Grants project, expanding Audubon’s Conservation Ranching (ACR) Initiative, which works with private landowners to enhance ecological, economic and social outcomes with ranch management practices. ACR currently has 50 certified ranches spanning 1.7 million acres, and this project will enable expansion into AZ, IA, MN and UT, with a goal of enrolling an additional 100 ranches across 2.3 million acres. Performance-based payments will be provided to participating ACR ranches for practices and program activities including installation of prescribed grazing infrastructure, third-party certification audits and soil monitoring.
Conservation Forage Program Lead Partner: Audubon Dakota
	The North Dakota Conservation Forage Program aims to improve wildlife habitat, forage availability and quality, and soil health by establishing grassland and integrating grazing and haying land management techniques on more than 18,000 acres of private lands.
Great Plains Grasslands Conservation - 2021 AFA Lead Partner: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Lead State: South Dakota Partner States: Colorado, Kansas, Montana and Nebraska Funding Amount: $7,780,000
	The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and partners will combine RCPP funding with over $14 million in financial assistance contributions to undertake a regionwide effort to preserve and conserve threatened grassland ecosystems in the Great Plains region. Through the project, farmers in the region will implement grassland restoration and prescribed grazing systems on over 1 million acres. An estimated 350,000 acres of grasslands will be enrolled in perpetual conservation easements. Project partners plan to estimate the carbon benefits of project activities, and to report on the project's economic and social outcomes. The partnership anticipates that NRCS’s investment will help jumpstart the regionwide approach and secure increased support for the conservation of Great Plains grasslands.
Big Game Habitat Improvement Project - 2021 Classic Lead Partner: Pheasants Forever, Inc. Lead State: Montana Funding Amount: $6,433,194 Funding Pool: CCA Critical Conservation Area (if applicable): Prairie Grasslands Region
	The Big Game Habitat Improvement Project will address threats to big game migration corridors and winter ranges through outreach, technical assistance, and producer contracts. The robust group of thirteen partners will work with producers to improve grazing operations, restore grassland habitats, and retain intact rangelands. Additional benefits include improved grazing management, improved plant productivity and health, making grassland more resilient to drought, and restoring marginal cropland to perennial grasses.
Northern Great Plains Grassland Conservation - 2020 Classic Lead Partner: Pheasants Forever, Inc. Lead State: Montana Funding Amount: $762,129 Partner Contributions: $761,722 Funding Pool: CCA Critical Conservation Area (if applicable): Prairie Grasslands Region
	The Northern Great Plains Grassland Conservation Project will focus on preserving intact grassland habitats and enhancing degraded habitats, particularly in areas that support declining grassland birds, waterfowl, and upland game birds. This partnership of bird-focused organizations (including American Bird Conservancy, Montana Audubon and the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture) will focus on restoring marginal cropland and unproductive monocultures to higher quality forage, and on developing grazing infrastructure on grasslands recently restored or at risk of conversion.
Scaling Soil Health in the Prairie Pothole Region - 2020 AFA Lead Partner: Ducks Unlimited, Inc. Partner States: Montana and North Dakota Funding Amount: $8,732,740 Partner Contributions: $10,063,000
	Ducks Unlimited proposes to harness a large partnership to implement agricultural practices that improve soil health for agricultural production, wildlife and society, and improve the management of water in a landscape prone to both flooding and drought. Targeted practices include the planting of perennial grasses, reduced tillage, integration of cover crops, expansion of livestock grazing, and provision of mentorship opportunities to farmers and ranchers. The outcomes data collection approach, developed by project partners, will measure conservation, economic and social outcomes on an anticipated 30,000 acres.