About the Project Ranch
Conversations Survey of Ranch Conversation Participants Press Releases 1999 Annual Meeting of the Lesser Prairie Chicken Interstate Working Group (10/29/99) Funding Sought for Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation (10/8/99) Working Documents Habitat Management Leaflet Assessment and Conservation Strategy for the Lesser Prairie-chicken (Copies of the following reports are available by contacting WGA) Let's Get to It -- Getting Beneath Difficult Environmental Resoruce Debates (1998) Two Futures -- Citizens Define Ways to Manage Glacial Lake Agassiz Ecosystems 1996) A Way of Life -- Great Plains Citizens Talk about Ecosystems Related Links WGA Contact |
Conservation of the High Plains Legacy The High Plains Partnership is a cooperative conservation effort involving state and federal agencies and private landowners from Montana to Texas. The goal of the partnership is to work across traditional public and private boundaries to reverse declining populations of wildlife by implementing voluntary, community-based solutions to natural resource problems on the High Plains. For a variety of reasons, many wildlife species are declining within the region's grasslands. Several species have been proposed as candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including the lesser prairie chicken, mountain plover, swift fox and black-tailed prairie dog, just to name a few. Declines may be related to loss and fragmentation of suitable habitat, increasingly large areas being cultivated for crops, drought, loss of playa lakes, lack of a natural fire regime and the replacement of native grasses with exotic grasses.
The working group was formed to improve coordination of information, data collection and research, and to develop recommendations for improved policy and program implementation strategies. The project area is a unique landscape that supports communities with a rich agricultural heritage and provides short- to mid-grass prairie habitat for this rare grouse. With more than 90 percent of the High Plains region privately owned and more than 70 percent of lesser prairie chicken habitat existing on private land, it is imperative that landowners, government, and others become partners to achieve the goals of everyone. The working group and local landowners will become partners in conservation. Jointly, they will develop strategies to sustain the agricultural community and benefit the lesser prairie chicken, initially, and other grassland wildlife species in the future. The best way to ensure rangeland health and reverse declines in these species is through regional collaboration and voluntary cooperation in which landowners work in partnership with government agency staff to make a difference on their land. The Western Governors' Association has coordinated activities of the HPP and acted as fiscal sponsor since 1996. Lessons learned from HPP and other initiatives helped the governors identify several common themes present in successful efforts in environmental protection and community sustainability. A result of this experience was the February 1998 adoption of a policy resolution advocating eight principles for improved environmental and natural resources management in the West. Known as the "Enlibra principles," they represent the beginning of a new paradigm for environmental management in the region. Enlibra was derived from two Latin words to represent balance and stewardship. The principles support local leadership to resolve environmental and natural resource challenges and the use of incentives to assist landowners and others who take actions to enhance the environment and achieve economic productivity. They also focus on: greater public participation and collaboration in resource decision-making; outcomes rather than just programs; and a recognition of the need for a variety of tools beyond regulation and litigation to improve environmental and community well-being across the West. The HPP is a comprehensive, incentive driven, voluntary program with four objectives. Answer applied research questions about the
relationships between wildlife and habitat Improve communications and build local
community involvement Establish demonstration areas as educational tools Cost-share approved range management practices |
As the first High Plains Partnership project, the
Lesser Prairie Chicken Interstate Working Group was established in 1996 to help identify
solutions to reverse the decline of the lesser prairie chicken. The group is a coalition
of wildlife and natural resources agency professionals from Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas,
Oklahoma and Texas, where populations of lesser prairie chickens still exist.