​Offered on Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Conservation Delivery; Partnerships; and Policy and Funding

​Conservation Delivery 

​Please refer to videos 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13 below. 

Protecting as many remaining native prairie remnants as possible is important for preserving the biodiversity of those tracts, as well as providing propagules for prairie recreations elsewhere. However, the relatively few remnants still in existence won’t provide the habitat base needed to support viable populations of all SGCN over time, and high-plant-diversity prairie reconstructions are unlikely to significantly increase that habitat base in the near term due both to the expense and difficulty in many places of attaining diverse and locally-adapted seed sources. Fortunately, some species, especially some species of birds, don’t appear to prefer high-diversity, or even native-grass sites, so long as the structure of the grassland suits their needs. 

All implementation efforts, therefore, ideally will be tailored to the needs of SGCN at species-appropriate scales, and take into account knowledge of the distribution, abundance, habitat requirements, and life history and population structures of SGCN to most effectively and efficiently recover their populations. 

Given that the vast majority of land in the Mississippi Flyway is privately owned, conservation efforts must involve the willingness of landowners to implement conservations actions and programs. Motivations can be financial, allowing landowners the ability to profit from them; be driven by a conservation ethic or desire to have certain species on their properties; or some combination. 
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The use of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial models are critical tools for planning and implementing conservation actions. Plans at local scales should be coordinated with those at more regional scales for more efficient and effective outcomes. 

Partnerships

Please refer to videos 10 and 11 below. 

Partnerships are key to conservation because they bring greater efficiency to the conservation endeavor. Resources and information can be pooled; tasks can be assigned to the most suitable partner; and workloads shared. They also make conservation more effective if the result is more or better work getting done, especially at a more biologically-meaningful scale.
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There are a lot of partnerships related to grassland conservation in the flyway, some appropriately focused at small scales; some more eco-regional; some that focus work across much larger regional geographies; and some are international in scope. Ideally, plans at smaller scales should at least communicate and not contradict those at more regional scales for more efficient and effective outcomes, but with so many planning efforts in existence within the flyway, it could be a daunting task. 

​Policy and Funding 

Please refer to video 8 below. 

Native grasslands are the most endangered ecosystems in North America.  It is time that a national grassland conservation initiative is created to address this conservation crisis.  A fully-funded national initiative would provide dedicated, long-term funding for the restoration, conservation, and maintenance of native grassland habitats across the United States. In addition, improvements in existing natural resources policy must be made to successfully create and maintain sufficient grassland habitat of adequate quality to benefit SGCN at meaningful scales.  

Videos for Review

Video #1: Grassland SGCN of the Mississippi Flyway
​Kelly Rezac, Missouri Department of Conservation

Video #5: Social Science Insights to Improve Grassland Conservation on Private Lands
Ashley Gramza, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Video #6: Producer Adoption of Native Grass Forages: Moving Working Lands Conservation Forward
Patrick Keyser, Center for Native Grasslands Management, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Video #7: Current and Future Application of Precision Agriculture for Conservation Delivery
Mark McConnell, Assistant Profession of Upland Birds, Mississippi State University

Video #8: Grassland Birds: The Case for a Native Vegetation Standard
Jef Hodges, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative

Video #9: ​Native Grasslands Alliance

Video #10: Midwestern Landscape Initiative: Strengthening Conservation Collaboration
Kelly Meyers, MLI Conservation Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Video #11: The Southeastern Conservation Adaptation Strategy
Todd Jones-Farrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Video #12: GAP Analysis
Amanda Haverland, American Bird Conservancy

Video #13: Learning from and Embracing USDA Farm Bill and other Large Conservation Programs for Grassland Conservation
Jim Giocomo, American Bird Conservancy.