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Sustaining Bird Habitats & Rural Communities

Resilient Grasslands

Resilient grasslands support vibrant ranching communities, robust grassland bird populations, and sustainable ecosystem services.

photo by Mitch Kezar

Our Region

The Northern Great Plains is a broad expanse of rolling plains and grasslands covered primarily by mixed-grass prairie and sagebrush-steppe. The NGPJV works across portions of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
NGPJV Boundary Map

conservation across the plains

The Northern Great Plains supports the largest expanse of core breeding habitat for five of the most imperiled grassland birds.
The NGPJV supports and catalyzes conservation that works for birds and the people of the Northern Great Plains across all land ownerships and cultures.
NGPJV partners take actions that improve the health of the land by using science to direct the right conservation tools to the right time and place.
We support locally-led collaboratives that champion local sustainability and vibrant communities in the Northern Great Plains. Our local partners provide guidance on place-based conservation tools, challenges, and outcomes.

Long-billed Curlew by Ron R Bielefeld

2023 was a year of partnerships. Partnerships are hard work and they take time, but the benefits of working collaboratively pay dividends in the long run. Last year, NGPJV partners dug into building trust, enhancing collaborations, and building our networks, all working toward the common vision of enhancing and supporting resilient grasslands.

In this Annual Report, we showcase the work of our NGPJV partnership to work across fences, catalyze conservation, and leverage broader initiatives. We also quantified the collective footprint of conservation actions in the Northern Great Plains to elevate the impactful work of our partnerships. In 2024 we look forward to more capacity, deeper relationships, and ongoing targeted work that supports the people and the resources of the Northern Great Plains. Together, we are building a sustainable future!

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Recent News

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Dakota Grasslands–Where Good Things Grow

The South Dakota Grassland Coalition (SDGC) launched a new public service and education campaign designed to help protect and improve the health and function of native grasslands, North America’s most threatened ecosystem.  The campaign, Dakota Grasslands – Where Good Things Grow, is produced by SDGC, in partnership with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the South

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Working with Ranchers to Bend the Grassland Bird Curve

More than a decade ago, the National Audubon Society recognized that any successful grassland bird conservation approach needed to work collaboratively with the landowners and land managers who are the stewards of the vast majority of America’s grassland landscapes—the essential places for grassland birds. The Audubon Conservation Ranching program was conceived as a market-connected conservation

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