Land Management Practices
Land Management Practices
Filter Total Items: 25
Tools for the Mitigation of Habitat-Based Impacts to Birds
Compensatory mitigation is applied in grassland and wetland ecosystems to offset environmental damage from disturbances such as energy development. Energy facilities continue to proliferate across the United States, yet implementation of mitigation tools to ameliorate habitat loss or behavioural effects on wildlife is rare. NPWRC scientists conducted a 10-year Before-After, Control-Impact (BACI)...
Sourcing plants for conservation and restoration: developing a risk assessment framework
Tallgrass prairie species are planted in a variety of settings for a variety of reasons. Much of the seed used for these plantings is produced commercially in agricultural-like conditions and can be contaminated by “weed seeds.” In this study, we are creating an analytical tool to assess the risk of inadvertently introducing weed seeds into a prairie planting. We purpose that increasing the...
Support the Development of a National Park Service Midwest Region bison stewardship strategy
Bison have played a key role in shaping the grasslands of the Great Plains for millennia. National Parks are a major last bastion for wild herds of the national mammal and symbol of the Department of the Interior. However, even as the National Park Service aims to maintain as natural as possible ecosystem conditions within its parks’ boundaries, managers regularly make decisions affecting their...
Decision support for restoration and management of Service-owned native prairies: Implications for grassland bird communities
More than 100,000 ha of native tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the northern Great Plains. Although prairies in this region evolved with grazing, fire, and climatic variability, management of FWS grasslands often has been passive and involved extended periods of rest. In 2008, the USGS and the FWS initiated a collaborative effort, the...
Improving wildlife habitat through management and restoration of native prairies on lands under Fish and Wildlife Service ownership
The extent of native prairie throughout the north-central United States has sharply declined since European settlement, and much that remains has been invaded by introduced cool-season grasses, reducing floristic diversity and quality. On lands under its ownership, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to restore native prairie integrity by reducing occurrence of introduced species under...
Evaluation of conservation grazing versus prescribed fire to manage tallgrass prairie remnants for plant and pollinator species diversity
With scarcely 2% of native tallgrass prairie remaining today, it is imperative that we wisely manage what little remains to conserve prairie-dependent plants, pollinators, other animals and ecosystem processes. Two commonly used methods of prairie management are prescribed fire and conservation grazing. Either method may present trade-offs with respect to conservation of vulnerable plant, bee or...
Science support for Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
Conservation practitioners have begun to realize that the many of the land management challenges of the 21st century require a broad scale problem solving approach. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) work to implement such an approach by serving as a venue for multiple conservation partners to work together (e.g. federal and state agencies), identify common problems and support the...
Quantify the multiple services performed by wetland ecosystems in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States
This research effort is focused on incorporating land-use and land-cover change into forecasting models that accounted for variations in agricultural and conservation practices and programs. The primary tool being used is the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) modeling suite. We have parameterized this modeling tool for the prairie-pothole region, and developed new...
Understanding consequences of management strategies for farmed wetlands to ecosystem services in the Prairie Pothole Region
NPWRC is leading a partnership with North Dakota State University to examine ecological, social, and financial considerations of farming practices within temporarily-ponded wetlands. There has been a long history of cropping prairie pothole wetlands which are embedded within farm fields. Often wet conditions during spring or summer prevent farmers from getting a harvestable yield from these areas...
Restoration of wetland invertebrates to improve wildlife habitat in Minnesota
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is investigating limitations to restoring abundant aquatic macroinvertebrate populations to Minnesota wetlands and shallow lakes. Recent research on larger more permanent wetlands in Minnesota indicates that there have been decreases in quality of wetlands of use by ducks. That research also describes a decline in abundance of amphipods, a shrimp...
Evaluating wetland ecosystem health using real-time nutrient dynamics of ducks
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) leads a collaborative effort, spanning several studies, with the objective of improving techniques to assess the quality of spring migration habitat for ducks. Spring is a critical time in in the life cycle of migratory ducks because during migration they experience peak energetic needs at a time when food resources are often at their scarcest...
Impacts of wind-turbine energy complexes on northern prairie grouse
Wind-energy development in the northern Great Plains primarily occurs along the Missouri Coteau and Missouri River Plateau in North Dakota and South Dakota. While these areas rank high in wind-energy potential they also contain important breeding habitat for sharp-tailed grouse and greater prairie-chickens. The impact of these wind-energy developments on prairie grouse populations and trends in...