NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/831879
68 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2017 involvement of farmers and ranchers is critical if we are to conserve our biodiversity. "Private land conservation is all about developing relationships with landowners and gaining their trust," said Pfeiffer. He explained that many problems in native habitats result from inadequate management and can be alleviated. Cedar invasion in prairie is the classic example. "Pastures are often managed in ways that promote invasion by cedars and other trees. My job is to show landowners approaches to management that sustain prairies, not brush." Pfeiffer also stressed the importance of conserving native landscapes, explaining that many wildlife species require large blocks of un-fragmented habitat. A viable population of prairie chickens, the quintessential tallgrass prairie bird, for example, requires thousands of acres of open, treeless grassland with a variety of grass densities for wintering, booming, nesting and brood rearing. "An 80-acre prairie surrounded by cropland will not support prairie chickens," said Pfeiffer. Native plants and insects also fare better in large landscapes. In small, isolated prairies, for example, species are often extirpated by herbicide or pesticide spraying, overgrazing or other events and there is little chance of recolonization without other prairies nearby. In native landscapes species can move about, repopulating lost habitats. "Prairies and woodlands need to be managed at the scale required by species," added Pfeiffer. By working in our remaining native landscapes, conservationists also get more bang for their limited conservation bucks. For instance, if nesting cover for prairie chickens is lacking in a landscape, a single grazing management project, which includes resting pastures allowing for denser grass growth for nesting, could enhance chicken populations for miles around. Conservation projects in landscapes also tend to build on themselves. "When you help a rancher with cedar cutting or prescribed burning in their pasture, the word spreads pretty fast and soon you are working with the neighbor, and then the people a few miles up the road," said Pfeiffer. Ranchers Jon and Jacob Immink have worked closely with NPLT in the Sandstone Prairies for many years. "We have been ranching in these Jefferson County hills for 30 years and were probably some of the first people Jarren Kuipers worked with," said Jon Immink. The Imminks have completed over a dozen cedar and brush management and prescribed burn projects through NPLT on the nearly 4,500 acres of pasture they own or lease. "We started by cutting cedars off the uplands," said Immink. "Then we looked at our draws and creek bottoms. This was the best ground on the place, but they were filthy with brush and trees and worthless for grazing." Cost- share funds provided by NPLT helped the Imminks with the projects on their own lands, and they were essential on the pastures they lease from elderly owners who lack the financial resources to control woody plants. The Imminks have also become Piles of cut red-cedars dot a prairie in the Sandstone Prairies. NPLT provides cost-share to landowners to cut cedars if they agree to conduct follow up prescribed burns to prevent re-invasion. PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER