WLFW News Inbox

Wildlife Conservation Through Sustainable Ranching

Special Edition: Migratory Big Game Conservation Success in the West | Expanded USDA Initiative Helps Ensure Big Game Always Have Room to Roam

USDA Doubling Down on Growth of NRCS Working Lands For Wildlife!

Most of America’s biodiversity, sensitive species, landscape connectivity, and natural carbon storage opportunity depend heavily on private working lands, where we can partner with great land stewards to achieve shared conservation goals - while helping avoid regulatory outcomes.

Analysis: Why protecting very large swaths of land matters for wildlife conservation

Although bison are the U.S. national mammal, they exist in small and fragmented populations across the West. The federal government is working to restore healthy wild bison populations, relying heavily on sovereign tribal lands to house them.

USDA Invests More than $48.6 Million to Manage Risks, Combat Climate Change

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest more than $48.6 million this year through the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership for projects that mitigate wildfire risk, improve water quality, restore forest ecosystems, and ultimately contribute to USDA’s efforts to combat climate change. This year, the USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will invest in projects, including 14 new projects, bringing together agricultural producers, forest landowners, and National Forest System lands to improve forest health using available Farm Bill conservation programs and other authorities.

New analysis highlights conservation challenges and opportunities on Western public lands

Recently published science applies remote-sensing tools to BLM-managed rangelands and provides an unprecedented record of how the vegetation across this enormous area has changed over the past 30 years.

AFS Newsletter February 2023

AFS Newsletter: Latin America Congress Abstract Deadline Extended, Award Nominations Open, Rockfish Citizen Science.

Conservation Corridor October 2022

Conservation Corridor October Newsletter

NRCS in Florida Announces Agricultural Conservation Easement Program Signup

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Florida has announced they are accepting applications from agricultural producers and forest landowners for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). While NRCS does accept ACEP applications year-round, producers and landowners should apply by December 31, 2021 to be considered for funding in the current cycle.

Sometimes, the simplest things can help wildlife

Sad to say, but that wide-open home on the range that Bing Crosby sings about in Brewster Higley’s “Home on the Range” has been steadily diminishing with every passing decade as the Western landscape has been sliced and diced by roads and barbed-wire fences.

USDA Announces Additional Assistance for Cattle, Row Crop Producers

USDA announced today more than $12 billion for the Pandemic Assistance for Producers, which will help farmers and ranchers who previously did not qualify for COVID-19 aid and expand assistance to farmers who have already received help. Farmers who previously submitted CFAP applications will not have to apply again. Sign-up for the new program begins on April 5.

A Natural Treasure: Florida's Sandhills & Grasslands

Learn how local and state partners with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service have permanently protected a pristine sandhill grassland ecosystem in north-central Florida from rapidly advancing development.

USDA Launches Strategy to Continue Conserving the Gopher Tortoise and its Critical Habitat

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has released its new 5-year plan to conserve the Southeast’s threatened gopher tortoise by focusing on the conservation and restoration of its key habitat, the longleaf pine forests. Acting NRCS Chief Kevin Norton told Southeast AgNet the fate of the gopher tortoise is linked to habitat quality, and efforts to conserve habitat on private lands will be critical to its continued survival.