The USDA recently released a report detailing conservation measures of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative (LPCI) in the southern Great Plains.
Working with private landowners, the LPCI is a part of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The LPCI uses a “conservation strategy that targets NRCS technical and financial assistance to facilitate landscape-level improvements to grazing lands.”
According to the report, since 2010, NRCS has invested $41.67 million with 883 participating landowners in the LPCI, resulting in the conservation of 1.61 million acres of working lands.
The lesser prairie-chicken requires a diverse and healthy grassland habitat to meet their seasonal needs. According to the USDA, “Prescribed grazing of livestock is the primary conservation practice required to maintain essential habitat. Additionally, prescribed grazing to maintain rangeland health provides greater resilience to droughts, which are frequent throughout the bird’s range.”
Habitat suitability for prairie chickens improves by 11 percent for every 1 percent of the landscape NRCS put into prescribed grazing. Highlights of the report include:
• LPCI has planned or applied conifer removal on 71,547 acres through fiscal year (FY) 2018, which is 126 percent of the goal of 56,448 acres. LPCI has planned or applied mesquite removal on 126,233 acres through FY 2018, which is 91 percent of the goal of 138,045 acres;
• LPCI has planned or applied practices to address the threat of expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) on 119 acres through FY 2018, which is 1 percent of the goal of 19,987 acres. This does not reflect the actual progress towards meeting this goal. When the legacy effects of retaining 59 percent of CRP fields post-contract are considered, 1.1 million acres of expired CRP fields have been preserved; and
• To reintroduce prescribed fire to grassland and prairie ecosystems. LPCI has planned or applied prescribed burning on 21,410 acres through FY 2018, 80 percent of its goal of 26,640 acres.
The lesser prairie-chicken is currently not a listed species under the federal Endangered Species Act after a federal court in 2015 vacated the threatened status previously designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“NRCS-supported science demonstrates that sustainable grazing and lesser prairie chicken conservation are not only compatible but interdependent. In addition to having landscape and agricultural benefits, conservation in these grasslands also benefits many other species of wildlife,” the report states.
For a copy of the report or to find out more information, go to nrcs.usda.gov and search for lesser prairie-chicken. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
