Local Conservation Partnerships

The Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) firmly believes that conserving habitat at the level necessary to sustain bird populations requires lasting local support, collaboration and leadership. When a group of resource managers, landowners, community leaders, conservationists and others work collaboratively to conserve the natural resources in their area — be it playas, Lesser Prairie-Chickens or everything in between — that's when the majority of the habitat work takes place.

We call these groups local conservation partnerships. Partnerships can be formal — complete with bylaws and boards of directors — or informal, but they usually possess the following attributes that lead to successful and sustained conservation:

• Connections to landowners and local agency representatives
• A structure for collaboration
• Awareness of conservation needs
• Access to habitat management options and information
• Knowledge of and ability to access programs and funding
• Ability to fund-raise
• Ability to self-promote
• A plan with measurable goals
• Ability to understand and implement a biological plan
• Ability to self-evaluate against stated goals
• Long-term collaboration on a variety of conservation issues

There are many grassroots alliances of landowners, resource managers and community leaders working to conserve wildlife habitat throughout the western Great Plains. To find an organization in your area, view a list of our Local Conservation Partnership contacts. This is a list of our official, more established, groups. They may help direct you to other smaller landowner groups that are also working in your area.