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Great Plains Grassland Extension Project: Tackling big conservation challenges through collaboration and cooperation
Author
Baldwin, C
Fogarty, D
Hovick, T
Treadwell, M
Matzke, C
Thompson, A
Goodman, L
Spackman, C
Cram, D
Overlin, A
Bruegger, R
Twidwell, D
Scasta, D
Beaver, J
Bauman, P
Publisher
XII International Rangeland Congress
Publication Year
2025
Body

Grassland biomes are often extensive, and challenges such as invasive species can span multiple jurisdictions and ownerships. How can conservation efforts be scaled up to make a meaningful difference on such a large landscape? When an entire biome is in di stress, what can be done to address the conservation need? Woody encroachment is threatening the North American Great Plains ecosystem, replacing old-growth rangelands with a mix of undesirable brush and trees causing a loss of ecosystem services including habitat loss, soil hydrologic alterations, and drastic reductions in grazing capacity. Conservation efforts in the past have been fragmented between agencies and individual landowners without making impact at the needed scale and have failed to halt range land losses. New mapping tools allow more precise location of problem areas, and recent research provides a new approach to tackle the problem. The Great Plains Grassland Extension Partnership offers an example of how conservation efforts can expand across a biome. Range management specialists within each state's Cooperative Extension System have united to coordinate outreach efforts to ranchers, share new management techniques, report success and challenges, and assist and coordinate other conservation agencies such as the Natural Resource Conservation Service and state wildlife agencies. A single message incorporating the urgent need and a new approach to tackling the woody encroachment problem at greater than the individual property size has provided hope for reversing the degradation of North American rangelands. The partnership allows each state to engage with local partners who can forward the same conservation message. Working together, there is hope for melting the "green glacier" of advancing woody encroachment covering the Great Plains (Engle et al. 2008).

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Additional Information
This paper is part of the larger XII International Rangelands Congress Proceedings. Page Numbers: 268-271. Theme: Theme 2 / Collaborations for rangeland restoration and conservation
ISSN
978-0-646-72121-7
Conference Name
International Rangeland Congress
Collection
International Rangelands Congress
Keywords
Woody encroachment
grassland ecosystem
collaborations