For more than a decade, the Restore New Mexico partnership has worked to remove mesquite and improve grassland conditions in southeast New Mexico for Lesser Prairie-Chickens and other wildlife. This partnership — made up of state and federal agencies, local soil and water conservation districts, and nonprofits — works together to prioritize areas for aerial herbicide treatment and enroll landowners and lessees in multi-year agreements to treat the land they operate. The result is tens of thousands of acres of mesquite-invaded woodland being treated every year.
“From the early beginnings of the model to its latest iteration, our collaborative efforts have not only aided in safeguarding grasslands critical to the Lesser Prairie-Chicken but have also paved the way for innovative approaches in wildlife conservation.”
“In 2005, Restore New Mexico partners came together with the goal of restoring disturbed lands on a landscape scale,” said Project Manager Randy Howard from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Pecos District Office. “What started as a concept became successful through an ambitious partnership approach involving numerous agencies, organizations, ranchers, and industry groups. Since then, 1,830,916 acres have been treated, and we have plans to treat an additional 1,555,104 acres.”
The primary focus of the partnership is Lesser Prairie-Chickens. Because this bird avoids tall structures that could provide perches for predators, such as hawks, five priority areas have been identified where mesquite removal efforts are focused. Since 2012, BLM has been using a spatial model — developed by scientists collaborating with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative — that estimates mesquite cover within those areas to prioritize where to apply aerial treatments of herbicide.
“Over the past decade, this model has helped us make important progress in Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation and we’ve witnessed our shared dedication transform the landscape of Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation,” said Aaron Poznanovic of RedFox GIS & Remote Sensing, one of the scientists who worked on the original model.
Fast forward 10 years, with millions of acres of grassland treated, the model needed to be updated and the geographic scope expanded. That’s when New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), one of the Restore NM partners, asked PLJV to help update the model with funding provided by NMDGF, BLM and CEHMM. First, PLJV staff needed to learn more details about the methods used from the original developers — and ask if any of them were interested in updating the model. Fortunately, Poznanovic was onboard with the idea.
“The old model greatly helped us in our mesquite planning across much of the habitat occupied by Lesser Prairie-Chicken, and the new model is even more accurate in determining the density of mesquite,” said Ty Carter, BLM Pecos District Operations Reclamation Coordinator. “It is amazing to see how it picks up on our treatments that have been completed since the older model came out. We are now able to plan large-scale mesquite projects with great confidence using this model.”
Completed in July 2023, the updated model has already guided the treatment of over 25,000 acres of mesquite in Chaves County, located in southeastern New Mexico. The success of this effort was also recently acknowledged by the national BLM office and is receiving additional funds through the Inflation Reduction Act to continue grassland restoration and Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation.
“One of the key advancements in the updated model is the incorporation of cutting-edge deep learning techniques and the utilization of very high-resolution aerial imagery,” said Poznanovic. “From the early beginnings of the model to its latest iteration, our collaborative efforts have not only aided in safeguarding grasslands critical to the Lesser Prairie-Chicken but have also paved the way for innovative approaches in wildlife conservation. This serves as a thrilling testament to the power of teamwork and innovation, showcasing how science and technology can join forces to protect our planet’s most vulnerable species.”