What is the Playa Lakes Joint Venture?
Dedicated to Conserving the Bird Habitat of the Southern Great Plains
The PLJV is a non-profit partnership of federal and state wildlife agencies, conservation groups, private industry and landowners dedicated to conserving bird habitat in the Southern Great Plains. We provide science-based guidance and decision-support tools for all-bird conservation throughout the region, as well as outreach, coordination and financial support to our partners and local groups to conduct on-the-ground habitat work. More...
In The News
New Online Lesser Prairie-Chicken Habitat Mapping Tool Available
A new online regional mapping tool—the FIve-State Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT)—will help protect the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (LEPC), a candidate for federal protection, while allowing energy projects to still be developed in the Southern Great Plains. The collaborative effort to develop this spatial planning tool, funded through a Western Governors’ Association (WGA) grant, was led by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. The tool will inform the pre-planning of large-scale energy, transportation, and land-use projects in sensitive LEPC habitat and also help state and federal agencies and other organizations target LEPC research and conservation programs. To access the online tool, visit www.kars.ku.edu/maps/sgpchat/.
Webinar Highlights Collaboration Between Joint Ventures and State Agencies
In September, the Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism (KDWPT) participated in a national webinar series aimed at illustrating how state fish and wildlife agencies and joint ventures are working collaboratively for better bird conservation. In the webinar, PLJV’s GIS Director Megan McLachlan discussed a recent project in which PLJV and KDWPT worked collaboratively, along with a large working group of federal agencies and NGOs, to develop a geospatial decision support system (DSS) aimed at conserving the Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a species of high conservation concern in Kansas. Watch a recording of the A DSS for Targeting Lesser Prairie-Chicken Conservation webinar.
New County Maps Show Playa Locations
Playa Lakes Joint Venture has released updated maps that pinpoint the locations of more than 75,000 playas in counties across the PLJV region. Land managers and landowners can use these maps to locate playas in a specific location and see how playas are distributed throughout their county. VIEW AND DOWNLOAD MAPS...