News

The PPJV publishes a quarterly e-newsletter called the Pulse of the Prairie. Sign up for our mailing list to learn about prairie conservation, birds, science, Joint Venture activities, upcoming events, and more!

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Keep up with the latest news on bird and habitat conservation efforts across the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture!

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Ducks Unlimited Launches New Working Lands Conservation Program

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

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Celebrating 30 Years of the Four-Square-Mile Survey

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.

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2018 NAWMP Update Scoping Underway

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

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A Message from the PPJV Co-Chairs

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

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Improving Soil Health and Wildlife Habitat

Soil health practices have become increasingly popular among producers across North and South Dakota, and Ducks Unlimited (DU) is seeking opportunities to develop associated wildlife benefit and provide financial assistance to interested farmers. By incorporating more diversified crop rotations, reducing tillage, and incorporating cover crops, producers can improve soil structure, improve water infiltration and storage,

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Priority Grassland Bird Full-Annual Cycle Conservation Plan

Grassland bird populations have shown the most widespread and significant declines of any avifaunal group in North America. The Prairie Pothole Region supports the core breeding populations for four of the most rapidly declining species, specifically Sprague’s pipit (Anthus spragueii), chestnut-collared (Calcarius ornatus) and McCown’s longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii), and Baird’s sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii). These four

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South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks and PPJV Partners Continue to Deliver Wetland Restoration Projects on Public and Private Lands

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.

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Coordinator’s Corner: Grasslands

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

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Partner Profile: Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited (DU) has a vision to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. DU is regarded among the scientific and conservation community as the world’s leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation. DU is dedicated to conserving North America’s continually disappearing waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 13.6

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Prairie Butterflies Get a Little Help in South Dakota

As the South Dakota Prairie Butterfly Garden enters its fourth growing season, the perennial plants are spreading out of their original plots, making the garden appear like a South Dakota prairie. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) worked together to create this outdoor learning area for

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The Birds and The Bees…and Butterflies Too!

Diverse habitat is a fundamental building block for healthy wildlife populations. That’s an axiom we all learned in Biology 101 and one that serves as the foundation for the new Honey Bee & Monarch Butterfly Partnership. Like all good ideas, the concept started with a seed. More exactly, a diverse mix of seeds. Last year,

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