More than a decade ago, the National Audubon Society recognized that any successful grassland bird conservation approach needed to work collaboratively with the landowners and land managers who are the stewards of the vast majority of America’s grassland landscapes—the essential places for grassland birds. The Audubon Conservation Ranching program was conceived as a market-connected conservation

More than 60 miles southwest of Bismarck, the Paul Ranch spreads across more than 6,700 acres of high-quality, mixed-grass prairie. One of the initial ranches enrolled in the National Audubon Society’s Conservation Ranching program, the ranch, operated by Daniel and Tresa Paul and their children David and Denver Paul, is celebrating five years as an

When one thinks of the Northern Great Plains, it often conjures images of vast horizons and frolicking antelope, yet it is the people that define the region. Ranchers, farmers, indigenous people, and other community members embody the resilience of this landscape, and many are dedicated to sustaining rangelands for cultural significance, current livelihoods, or future

The Northern Great Plains Joint Venture has been working across fences and Joint Venture (JV) boundaries to support grassland conservation that bridges gaps between land ownership and cultures and moves the needle on habitat conservation and grassland bird population targets. The NGPJV and Prairie Pothole Joint Venture (PPJV) science integration specialists continue to collaborate across

The sum of cooperative conservation is greater than its parts. By showcasing the work of our partners and communicating the value of our combined footprint, the NGPJV is helping to demonstrate how we are, together, making an impact in the grasslands. To set ambitious yet realistic conservation goals, the NGPJV quantified population objectives for five

The growth of NGPJV communications efforts continues to evolve in response to the ever-shifting dynamics across the partnership and the landscape we serve. With dedicated capacity for communications still being a relatively new addition to the NGPJV team, outreach efforts over the last several years had primarily focused on building our “common core” of communication

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

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

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

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

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,

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