Photo: Playa restoration on Stevens’ playa (Dru Stevens) The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) and PLJV are developing an overarching playa conservation strategy in eastern New Mexico that builds on many years of education and outreach efforts in Curry and Roosevelt counties. This strategy has already resulted in a large number of […]

Since 2015, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and other partners have been working with producers and landowners to restore playas in the Texas panhandle through the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative. To date, 65 restoration projects have been completed, with a total of 2,747 playa and saline lake acres restored. Just in 2021 alone, 663 […]

Photo: A playa instrumented station on Ehmke’s playa in Lane County, Kansas. (Bill Johnson) A new study led by the Kansas Geological Survey will help to improve our understanding of how farming playas affects recharge rates and inform best practices for playa management. “We’re hoping to get a better understanding of how our different land […]

Since the PLJV ConocoPhillips Capacity Grant Program is intended to support long-term conservation work on the landscape, PLJV likes to invest in organizations that are on the upswing and need a push to get over the hill. We looked back at four former grantees to see how their capacity for conservation work has grown since […]

Over the past few years, there has been a growing awareness of playas and their role in recharging the Ogallala Aquifer, including published articles. The May 2021 issue of Discover Magazine included an article, These Wetlands Feed The Largest Aquifer In The U.S. What Happens If We Lose Them?, which highlights the importance of playas […]

A key aspect to successful conservation delivery is listening to the needs of partners and shaping strategy around those conversations. Two recently funded projects to address declining aquifer levels in Kansas are based on this kind of collaboration. This past year, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced it is investing $1.4 million in a […]

Conserving vast grassland landscapes is a large task; one that requires partnership, an ability to identify priority areas and a commitment to increasing capacity for habitat conservation. The PLJV ConocoPhillips Capacity Grant Program is helping to build that capacity by investing in organizations that are protecting grasslands. As the most recent PLJV ConocoPhillips Capacity Grant […]

Despite some setbacks related to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ranchland Trust of Kansas (RTK), last year’s recipient of the PLJV ConocoPhillips Capacity Grant, continues to expand its footprint of grassland habitat conservation throughout Kansas. “The priority is exactly the same and we haven’t had a shift in what we want to see as the outcome,” said […]

The last week in February, a group of landowners gathered in Roosevelt County, New Mexico to watch fire management teams burn 1,700 acres of land. The event was part of a prescribed burn in the area, meant to mitigate the effects of wildfires while also creating ideal habitat for Lesser Prairie-Chicken and other grassland birds […]

With about 23,000 playas in the Southern High Plains of Texas, the state is undoubtedly an important place for playa restoration and conservation. But, despite their abundance and ability to support aquifer recharge, they often go unnoticed or underappreciated. As a solution to this, a number of conservation organizations came together in 2015 to form […]