A recent Audubon North American Grasslands and Birds report highlights the need to not only protect our remaining grasslands but also to prioritize and direct our conservation efforts to areas that will support grassland birds now and into the future. Within the PLJV, one of the best ways we can do that is to remove […]

For years, PLJV has been looking for ways to make playa conservation relevant to the people who own or manage these temporary wetlands. Most playas are on private land and are often inconveniently located in the middle of farmland. So, there are many factors that go into the decision of what to do with a […]

The National Audubon Society recently released a report, North American Grasslands and Birds, that evaluates the sensitivity of grassland bird species to climate change and identifies which grasslands are strongholds against both climate change and land use conversion and which are vulnerable to those processes. PLJV collaborated on the chapter addressing the southern Great Plains […]

PLJV welcomes long-time conservation partner Matt Smith as our new Conservation Delivery Specialist. Starting on September 16, Matt will be supporting partners in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska in delivering conservation programs for playas, grasslands, and other priority bird habitats, with an emphasis on Farm Bill programs. USDA conservation programs provide significant funding for improving priority […]

The PLJV partnership has been using the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program to monitor grassland bird populations since 2016, with most of that sampling designed to measure birds across average conditions. However, shrub encroachment is becoming more and more of an issue, one that many of our conservation partners are wanting to […]

Pictured (left to right): Jeff Raasch, TPWD; Mike Carter, PLJV; Mrs. Laura Bush; Bob Locke, Ducks Unlimited; and Don Kahl, TPWD. In October, the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative was one of six conservation projects featured at the first annual Conservation Wrangler Summit and Celebration hosted by Texan by Nature, an organization founded by Former First […]

Before and after the removal of invasive non-native plants including Russian olive and tamarisk. Courtesy of Kansas Partners for Fish and Wildlife. Over the last couple of years, the USFWS Kansas Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program along with numerous partners have been successfully leveraging funding sources — including a NAWCA small grant and a […]

For anyone planning to restore native tallgrass prairie, a visit to the Matador Wildlife Management Area (WMA), located near the southeastern corner of the Texas panhandle, may be in order. Over the past 14 years, the Matador WMA, which was purchased in 1959 by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) as a research and demonstration […]

In September, the USDA Farm Service Agency accepted 167 offers, totally 8,988 acres of playas and surrounding uplands, into the Migratory Bird, Butterfly, and Pollinator Habitat State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (Migratory Bird SAFE) practice. Of those offers, 125 of them were in western Kansas and 42 in western Nebraska. “It’s really gratifying to watch […]

Over the past year, PLJV has been working with Barrett and Carol Pierce to develop a landscape design conservation plan for their property, Rio Farms, in Texas. After a full-day, in-person meeting to discuss objectives and gather information, the PLJV team worked closely with the landowners to create a powerful framework to guide conservation efforts […]