Opening day of duck season is an exciting occasion, especially for youngsters hunting for the first time. During the 2017 North Dakota youth waterfowl hunting season, Ducks Unlimited volunteers took a group of kids hunting at the Coteau Ranch. The ranch, which is open to public hunting, is owned by Ducks Unlimited and located in … Read more
The South Dakota Grassland Coalition and its partners (listed below) collaborated to produce and release a short video story each month during 2018 to promote healthy soils, grasslands, and ecosystems. The videos are beautifully filmed, depict real ranching families, and are well worth three minutes of your time. Click here to enjoy the Our Amazing … Read more
The North Dakota Natural Resources Trust (Trust), along with their partners on the Outdoor Heritage Fund grant, are offering producers access to resources to keep their expired and expiring CRP acres in grass through the Working Grasslands Partnership Phase II (WGP II). The inaugural grant engaged more than 40 landowners to keep over 17,000 acres … Read more
Every year since 1987, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) personnel across the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region have visited approximately 6,000 wetlands to count waterfowl as part of the Four-Square-Mile Breeding Waterfowl Survey. Since the early days of the USFWS, it has been widely recognized that this region is extremely important in sustaining duck populations. … Read more
Looking back over a generation of accomplishments, one thing is certain: our strength lies in the diversity of partners who have come together around our common goals. The impressive numbers of grassland and wetland habitats that our joint efforts have protected are testament to this fact. These fruitful partnerships have inspired confidence with residents of … Read more
The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) steering committee convened the Future of Waterfowl Workshop September 25-27 at the USFWS National Conservation and Training Center as a catalyst for the next iteration of the Plan. The PPJV was well represented with a large number of management board members and technical committee members in attendance. The … Read more
ND Outdoor Heritage Fund grant will help farms integrate livestock, cover crops North Dakota agricultural producers can get help diversifying their operations and improving soil health. Ducks Unlimited and its partners worked with producers in southeastern North Dakota to build a simple, useful program called Cover Crop and Livestock Integration Project (CCLIP), which provides financial … Read more
Deuel County, South Dakota, is home to some of the most productive breeding waterfowl habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region – reason enough for several partners to work with the Even family to restore 32.5 acres of wetlands on their farm. Add upland nesting bird habitat to the mix, and the project was a winner … Read more
Farming, ranching, hunting, and wildlife management go hand-in-hand at Daybreak Ranch in central South Dakota. Located north of Highmore, family-owned and operated Daybreak Ranch comprises 8,000 acres of private land consisting of native grassland, cropland, wetlands, food plots, and tree belt plantings. These diverse habitats support wildlife in abundance, especially ring-necked pheasants, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, … Read more
In the fall of 2016, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) Private Lands Habitat Program, along with Pheasants Forever, and private landowners completed 30 wetland restorations working across 3 project areas on public and private lands in northeastern South Dakota. These areas provide important habitat for waterfowl and other wetland and grassland dependent wildlife. … Read more
With so many distractions confronting the people of this country, it seems gaining attention for land conservation – and ultimately wildlife conservation – is a tall order indeed. We have all viewed efforts to promote the conservation of oceans, wetlands, and even forests. However, we hear little about “grasslands,” yet, from a global perspective, temperate … Read more
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) of the 1985 Food Security Act (a.k.a. Farm Bill) provides substantial benefits to grassland birds. Populations of grassland birds are declining at a steeper rate than any other group of North American birds and the Northern Great Plains has the highest diversity of grassland bird species on the continent, therefore … Read more
