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Reversing Grassland Wildlife Decline
A few months ago, Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns submitted a proposal to the federal government to pay western Nebraska farmers $150 million to temporarily stop irrigating 100,000 acres of cropland and instead plant wildlife habitat. The proposal seeks to improve stream flows and increase water levels in reservoirs and to create more grassland habitat for declining wildlife species.
While these are worthwhile goals, the proposal unfortunately will not do much for grassland wildlife populations.
More than half of western Nebraska's prairie grassland has been converted to cropland. What remains is mostly in poor shape. The loss and degradation of this habitat is the main reason grassland wildlife is declining. Because of the sheer magnitude of the problem, this proposal will not make much difference. It regrettably is a Band-Aid for a gunshot wound.
What would make a real difference is a significant increase in federal spending for prairie grassland conservation. Most federal conservation spending now supports soil and water conservation programs for cropland and temporary cropland retirement programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program. The project Johanns now proposes essentially is a modification of the latter program. While these programs do help wildlife, much more needs to be done for prairie grassland if the decline in grassland species is to be reversed.
Additional spending for prairie grassland conservation should be directed both at private grazing land and at expanding protected areas, such as parks, wildlife refuges and natural areas.
Our first priority should be to stop the conversion of prairie grassland to cropland and to assist private landowners in better managing of prairie grazing land for plant and wildlife diversity. The conservation of private land for wildlife is a public benefit for which ranchers should be paid.
We also need to expand the amount of grassland in protected areas. In Nebraska and most Northern Great Plains states, only 1 percent to 2 percent of remaining grassland is in some form of protected status, and not all of that is managed primarily for wildlife. Protected areas conservation is a necessary complement to private land conservation because there are unavoidable management conflicts on private land between wildlife and livestock. We need areas on the plains where the primary management objective is wildlife.
Moreover, protected areas are necessary to create the natural infrastructure for nature-based activities that can help diversify the livestock-based rural economy. Protected areas are a sustainable use of the grassland resource that will continue to provide economic benefits to surrounding rural communities even during times of drought.
In other grassland areas of the world, where drought is also a fact of life, nature-based tourism and related activities are booming in areas where rural communities have set aside a significant amount of grassland in protected areas. The same will happen in Nebraska if we create more and larger protected areas.
Combining private and protected grassland conservation objectives has the potential to unite the ranching constituency and those groups interested in wildlife conservation and nature-based activities such as hunting, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, camping and related activities around a common agenda. Uniting these groups won't be easy, but given grassland conservation has been a low priority for federal spending in the past, building a broader constituency that includes both private land and protected areas is essential to getting more support for it. Bold leadership for Nebraska politicians and education and community leaders, but most importantly from the ranching community, will be necessary to make this happen.
Even with united front, making prairie grassland conservation spending a federal conservation priority will not happen overnight. Nebraska leaders could, however, jump-start the effort by building support for grassland conservation in Nebraska and by becoming a strong voice nationally for federal grassland conservation programs.
For discussion purposes, the following suggestions may be worth considering as part of a state grassland initiative. First, increase the amount of Nebraska land in park, wildlife refuges and natural areas to 20 percent to 15 percent by the year 2025. Second, establish a state protected areas programs within the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to set state priorities for creating grassland protected areas. Third, create a large Prairie Grassland Park Preserve in western Nebraska as a centerpiece of the state protected areas program. Fourth, establish a program within the UNL Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources to do research and outreach on creating and managing grassland-protected areas. The Center for Grassland Studies would be an appropriate place to house it.
The globalization of agriculture demands new approaches to the economic and conservation challenges Nebraska faces. With bold leadership, we can make grassland conservation the national priority it deserves to be sooner than one might expect. Only then will we be able to reverse the decline of prairie wildlife and truly make progress on creating a sustainable future for people in western Nebraska .
This article appeared in the Lincoln Journal Start, September 14, 2004.