WLFW Landscapes: Frameworks for Conservation Action
In 2021-2022, a multi-state, areawide planning team produced the first biome-scale frameworks for conservation action in the Great Plains grasslands, western sagebrush country, and for the central and eastern grasslands and savannas within 25 states in the northern bobwhite range.
These frameworks for conservation action capture the science documenting the threats to biomes, or ecological landscapes, and the wildlife that are part of them, the conservation actions that NRCS can supports to address these threats and benefit producers, and the NRCS goals for implementing these actions over time.
Grasslands and Savannas
The central and eastern grassland and savanna regions of the U.S. include the number one crop production states for corn, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, peanuts and cotton. Six of the top ten forest production states are in the East, and the Fescue Belt has the highest concentration of livestock producers and livestock in the country. Southeastern grasslands are the most diverse biologically in the U.S. but also the most imperiled with up to 90% in degraded condition or lost. Major threats include: habitat loss and fragmentation; climate change; alterations to natural land disturbance regimes; and invasive species.
Aquatics
Our natural resource conservation programs help people reduce soil erosion, enhance water supplies, improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce damage caused by floods and other natural disasters.
Eastern Deciduous Forests
In the northeastern U.S., partners are helping reinvigorate private forestry as a viable—and sustainable—industry. After decades of harvesting valuable trees from forests and leaving the rest, eastern deciduous forests are a monoculture of same-age or same-species trees, lacking both market value and healthy wildlife populations. WLFW “hit the reset button” by working with forest owners to establish young forest stands and restore economic value and abundant wildlife such as white tailed deer, turkey, ruffed grouse, and rarer species like the golden-winged warbler.
Western Landscapes
Working Lands for Wildlife in the west includes a diversity of landscapes such as: Sagebrush Country; Great Plains Grasslands; and Central Grasslands and Savannas. Animal species include: Sage Grouse; Lesser Prairie-Chicken; and a variety of Migratory Big Game.
