Ranching & Agriculture
World Wildlife Fund is working with ranching communities to help sustain their stewardship of grasslands and prevent conversion of grasslands to land unsuitable for wildlife.
Reviewing the 2018 Farm Bill: Conservation programs gets a $555 million increase.
Research shows agriculture’s impact on birds. Tractor-based management, such as light-strip discing, and establishing native-grass practices on private grasslands enrolled in the federal and widely popular Conservation Reserve Program, can improve nest survival of multiple grassland bird species and communities.
Farmland for future generations: An unprecedented investment: NY awards $10M in grants to 6 Genesee Valley farms to protect more than 4,270 acres of highly productive agricultural lands as working farms for future generations.
Funding to preserve farmland in Ohio available from the Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District.
The land-sparing argument is mostly flawed when it promises to save land for wildlife or for carbon sequestration.
Farmers take stewardship seriously: an opinion from Kansas.
California Rangeland Trust announces conservation of land at SkyRose Ranch in South County
It took Disney 50 years, but it finally buys Osceola ranch land from pioneer ranching family.
A rancher and an ecologist hike the desert, hunting for water and common ground on the San Pedro River.
Water
Irrigation efficiency for water conservation:
The Midwest Row Crop Collaborative, a group of leading companies and conservation organizations, focuses on advancing farmer-led programs in water conservation, water quality, and soil health in key agricultural states.
Developing and implementing high quality forest and agricultural land retention
recommendations at the local level: what the Chesapeake Bay Healthy Watersheds Program has learned about forests and water quality.
Wisconsin 2018 successes of Land and Water Resources Bureau: Creativity, cooperation, and paying for opportunities for professionals and farmers to come together and assist watershed groups/address flooding in 2018.
Wadena farmer, Andy Dombeck, named Conservationist of the Year by soil conservation district in Minnesota: “we need to leave it better than when we found it.”
Partners collaborate on Northern Lake Champlain water quality efforts.
The Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District, one of 14 in the state, promotes land use that supports human livelihoods and sustains ecosystems.
Wildlife, Recreation & Education
Prescribed fire good for health of landscape.
Bringing back woodlands, prairie, and wildlife in Missouri and Iowa, which represent a geographic transition zone where eastern forests meet the Great Plains
Increasing public access for hunting and wildlife-associated recreation in northwestern West Virginia. The Conservation Fund announced its purchase of 18,778 acres of forestland, which will also benefit threatened and endangered species.
Innovative approaches to boreal caribou protection and recovery are being advanced in Canada to conserve the nation’s iconic wildlife. Investment in multi-stakeholder groups is bringing together governments, Indigenous Peoples, industry and other stakeholders to accelerate collaborative, on-the-ground action in key areas across Canada.
Forests
Investing in Forest Health: A California startup conservation enterprise addresses one of the main causes of severe fires, such as last fall’s Camp Fire. In November 2018, Blue Forest Conservation launched its first Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), which raises private investor capital to fund the upfront costs of forest restoration, with multiple beneficiaries sharing the cost of reimbursing investors over time.
“Woodlands protecting agriculture, not competing with agriculture,” says Ontario expert.
