Vol. 7 Issue 6, June 2009
In this issue
Top Stories

POLICY UPDATE: Expiring CRP Mailing Has Positive Response in Kansas

Several months ago the Playa Lakes Joint Venture, in partnership with the Kansas Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), mailed letters to 2,314 expiring CRP contract holders in 32 counties in western Kansas. The letter, and attached documents explained there were several Continuous CRP Practices available to help them buffer playas, field borders, and waterways in their acreage by leaving the native grasses and forbs planted and intact, as they decided how to utilize their fields into the future. It also explained wildlife-friendly Continuous CRP Practices that would help them keep less suitable portions of their fields in the native grasses and forbs they had originally established under CRP. Simultaneously, training in how to apply these Continuous CRP Practices was conducted for all local FSA offices and NRCS personnel involved in managing the CRP contracts for the contract holders.

A response card was also enclosed in the mailing. USDA kept track of the number of contacts generated by the mailing and found that 125 response contacts were made, for a 5.4 percent response rate. Barth Crouch, Conservation Policy Director for PLJV said, "That may seem small until you consider that the average response rate for all those direct mail offers you get every week in your mailbox is less than one percent. We’re excited we got such a good response from Kansas landowners that care about their wetlands and wildlife."

A wetland coordinator, hired jointly by the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams and NRCS, is also directly contacting all of the expiring contract holders who have playas in their contract acres. Stay tuned to future Playa Post issues for those results.

MAPPING NEWS: Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Offers Tool to Protect Critical Lesser Prairie-Chicken Habitat

Like so many of the areas within the Joint Venture boundary, the lesser prairie-chicken population in Oklahoma is being adversely affected by land development and alternative energy expansion. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife (ODWC) Conservation believes it has the answer.

The ODWC has designed a new tool to protect and conserve imperiled lesser prairie-chickens affected by land development in western Oklahoma. The tool, known as the Oklahoma Lesser Prairie-Chicken Spatial Planning Tool, is a habitat-based model that quantifies the value of every acre within lesser prairie-chicken range. The tool should prove invaluable to developers and planners as they search for sites where development would least impact Oklahoma’s dwindling population of lesser prairie-chickens.

The lesser prairie-chicken is identified as a species of greatest conservation need in Oklahoma and is a candidate for federal listing on the endangered list. The sand shinnery and sand sagebrush native rangelands of northwest Oklahoma are crucial to their survival. But the same area also provides some of Oklahoma’s most abundant sources of energy, including wind, oil and natural gas. Efforts to harvest this energy are projected to rapidly intensify over the next few years.

Researchers have routinely found that lesser prairie-chickens avoid vertical structures because, it is theorized, they are often used as perches by avian predators such as hawks and owls. Habitat fragmentation caused by a number of factors, including transmission lines, roads and highways, buildings and tree encroachment into prairie habitats, as well as conversion of native rangeland to cropland or non-native vegetation, are all detrimental to lesser prairie-chicken survival.

The Oklahoma Lesser Prairie-Chicken Spatial Planning Tool was developed in cooperation with the Oklahoma Secretary of Environment, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, OSU Extension, the G.M. Sutton Avian Research Center and the Playa Lakes Joint Venture.

"Tools such as the Oklahoma Lesser Prairie-Chicken Spatial Planning Tool, in conjunction with on-going prairie conservation actions, will be important to strategically conserve the prairie-chicken and it’s habitat and to preclude the need to list the species under the Endangered Species Act, all while still meeting the energy needs of the United States," said Ken Frazier, assistant field supervisor for the Oklahoma Ecological Services Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to helping determine areas where development would least impact prairie chickens, the Spatial Planning Tool also can be used in assessing the cost of developments within the lesser prairie-chicken’s range, as well as to prioritize areas and costs for prairie chicken habitat restoration and recovery efforts. If it is necessary to site a project or structure in an area that will impact lesser prairie-chickens, the ODWC hopes developers will use the tool to determine a voluntary contribution to offset the impacts of that development.

The Oklahoma Lesser Prairie-Chicken Spatial Planning Tool, available on the ODWC Web site, is provided in formats compatible with both GIS (.img) and Google Earth (.kmz). Maps, in both 8.5” x 14” and 33” x 44” sizes.

For more information about the lesser prairie-chicken, log on to www.wildlifedepartment.com.

POLICY NEWS: Some Conservation Reserve Program Contracts Up in September Offered Extensions

On May 1, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced that certain CRP participants with CRP contracts expiring on September 30, 2009, would be offered a chance to extend all or part of their acres for three or five years at their current per acre payment rate.

The PLJV states were well represented by having 57 percent of the acres offered extensions nationally. The following is a PLJV breakdown by state:

  • Colorado: 334,972 of 719,452 acres expiring
  • Kansas: 118,416 of 425,120 acres expiring
  • Nebraska: 54,741 of 151,835 acres expiring
  • New Mexico: 18,130 of 40,840 acres expiring
  • Oklahoma: 69,828 of 159,579 acres expiring
  • Texas: 264,510 of 779,899 acres expiring

Wildlife officials in all PLJV states are waiting to see where the extensions are being offered and to see how many contract holders take advantage of the extension offer. In particular, the locations mean a great deal to the PLJV mission, with concerns over imbedded playas remaining buffered by grasses, as well as whether substantial amounts of CRP acres being used by lesser prairie-chickens will be converted back to cropland.

The Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the six state wildlife agencies in the PLJV states remain ready to assist landowners in deciding how to best use those acres that were not offered extensions in order to continue to decrease soil erosion, provide increased water quality, and protect wildlife habitat that their CRP acres have delivered over the life of the contract. Dan Meyerhoff, Area Conservationist for NRCS in western Kansas said, "Buffering those acres with Continuous CRP Practices would definitely help continue the most benefits for soil, water and wildlife."

SCIENCE UPDATE: Comprehensive Texas Drought Information Web Site Launched

The Drought Joint Information Center made up of state and federal agency public information officers from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Water Development Board, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Texas Forest Service, Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has created a comprehensive Texas drought information Web site.

The Web site is divided into two distinct areas—Resources on Drought provides static and changing information on drought, ranging from stream flow data and weather information to links provided by the participating agencies; and News Updates/Situational Reports features the latest items provided by the participating agencies. The center and its Web site, which operate at the discretion of the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management, provide a central clearing house of drought-related public information and education to help each of the participating agencies perform their designated public service roles.

The center also provides timely and consistent drought-related news, including historic and forecasted National Weather Service rainfall information, water updates from state water authorities, and agricultural drought damage assessment updates as provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency, state agricultural economists and other recognized experts. All information on the Web site is public information and is available for producers, industry groups, county officials, the media and anyone who needs creditable, consistent Texas drought-related information.

CONSERVATION UPDATE: More Than $23 Million in Federal Grants and Matching Funds going to Conservation of Neotropical Migratory Birds and Habitat

U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced more than $4.8 million in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants for 36 projects supporting neotropical migratory bird conservation throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Partners will match these funds with more than $18 million, supporting habitat restoration, environmental education, population monitoring, and other priority activities within the ranges of neotropical birds in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Nearly 350 species of neotropical migratory birds breed in the United States and Canada and winter in Latin America, including plovers, terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows. The populations of many of these birds are presently in decline, and several species are currently protected as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Success grants from PLJV partners include New Mexico and Texas. The Nature Conservancy will use a $250,000 grant, matched by $752,280, to expand protection of habitat critical to declining grassland bird species of the shortgrass and shinnery oak habitat of New Mexico. In Colorado, Nebraska and Mexico, the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory will use a grant of $244,351 and a partner match of $888,625, to conserve habitat for high-priority and declining grassland bird species in western North America through monitoring, research and protection. RMBO executive director, Tammy VerCauteren, said "we are very excited about the continued support from the USFWS neotropical migratory bird conservation act as it allows us to address critical breeding and wintering conservation issues for grassland birds and allows conservation to transcend international boundaries."

The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 2000 established the matching grants program to fund projects promoting the conservation of neotropical migratory birds in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Funds may be used to protect, research, monitor and manage bird populations and habitat, as well as to conduct law enforcement and community outreach and education. By law, at least 75 percent of the money goes to projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, while the remaining 25 percent can go to projects in the United States.

Learn more about the projects listed, plus the 27 projects in Mexico, Central and South America.

PROGRAM NEWS: Sign Up For Grassland Reserve Program

Jack Salava, acting state executive director of USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced today that FSA and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are accepting applications for the 2009 Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP). FSA and NRCS jointly administer the GRP.

GRP is a voluntary program that provides financial and technical assistance to landowners and operators for the restoration and conservation of the nation's grasslands. "Enrollment of land in GRP will have a positive economic impact on the country and improve environmental quality by preventing the conversion of grassland to other uses, including crop production and urban development," said Salava.

FSA and NRCS offices will accept GRP applications on a continuous basis for easements or rental agreements. Applications received by June 24, 2009, will be evaluated for 2009 GRP funding; applications received after this date will be evaluated for future GRP years funding.

According to Salava, the program has several enrollment options: permanent easements and 10, 15, or 20-year rental agreements. Application evaluation for acceptance in the 2009 GRP will be based on ranking criteria that will emphasize grazing operations; protection of grassland, land that contains forbs, and shrub land at the greatest risk from the threat of conversion to uses other than grazing; plant and animal biodiversity; restoration costs; and expiring Conservation Reserve Program contracts.

Eligible landowners who enroll in GRP will receive payment for permanent easements based on the lowest amount of either the fair market value of the property less the grazing value of the land; geographical cap as determined by NRCS; or offer from landowner.

Participants with approved rental agreements will receive annual payments for the rental contract period. GRP enrollment permits common grazing practices, haying, mowing, or harvesting for seed production, subject to certain restrictions. All participants in GRP are required to implement a grazing management plan approved by NRCS.

For additional eligibility criteria and information regarding GRP, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit the USDA Websites.

State Legislative and Nebraska Environmental Trust Have a Field Day

With sunshine and blue skies, the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture and the Nebraska All-Bird Conservation Partnership could not have asked for a better day for a tour. The PLJV, and its close partners in Nebraska, were honored to have staffers from Senators Johanns’ and Nelson’s offices, several staffers from state senators’ offices, as well as Senator Carlson himself, who was able to attend a portion of the day’s activities. In addition, everyone involved welcomed the entire staff from the Environmental Trust and Board Chair Vince Kramper join the tour.

During the tour, participants discussed public and private projects with an emphasis on the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture’s ability to optimize NET funds to acquire Federal grants that result in completed projects. New opportunities, such as the Trade Lands Initiative, were also discussed. This initiative would have a partner purchase quality cropland to be used as trade to acquire a critical roundout adjacent to public areas. In addition, attendees highlighted the tremendous wildlife and ecosystem benefits that are realized through habitat projects delivered by the RWBJV partnership.

The PLJV personally thanks Ted LaGrange, Randy Stutheit, Doreen Pfost, Laurel Badura, Gene Mack, and Steve Donovan for helping with the tour.

An updated Joint Venture Fact Sheet has been posted on the Division of Bird Habitat Conservation Web site.

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