Copy
September 2020


PLAYA POST
Partnerships are key to conservation work throughout the Playa Lakes Joint Venture region. In this issue, we look at some of those partnerships in New Mexico and how they support habitat restoration and benefit wildlife. 

This month, we consider how prescribed burns help Lesser Prairie-Chicken and how a partnership between three agencies is supporting a private lands biologist’s work to expand habitat conservation across the northeastern region. In Clovis, New Mexico, local leaders and community members continue to collaborate to restore playas and ensure a sustainable water future.

Prescribed fire benefits New Mexico's land and wildlife


The last week in February, a group of landowners gathered in Roosevelt County, New Mexico to watch fire management teams burn 1,700 acres of land. The event was part of a prescribed burn in the area, meant to mitigate the effects of wildfires while also creating ideal habitat for Lesser Prairie-Chicken and other grassland birds and wildlife. 
 
“This land hadn’t been burned in years, and when a fire sparks unintentionally, you have something that causes destruction. But prescribed fire is a prescription to burn this area with minimal damage,” said Gwen Kolb, state coordinator for New Mexico Partners for Fish and Wildlife, who facilitated the burn. “Two months later I had landowners telling me there were birds that came back to the area really quickly because it needed to be burned.”
 
Somewhat unconventionally, the burn took place across multiple jurisdictional boundaries and involved a number of partners*.
 
“Wildlife doesn’t care about land ownership boundaries,” Kolb said. “Prescribed fire allows us to take it back to a stage that wildlife can actually use.”

 
Prescribed burns help Lesser-Prairie Chicken
Watch: This video from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish shows the day-of process of a controlled burn.
Learn more: For resources on prescribed fire, visit Great Plains Fire Science Exchange.
Investing in big landscapes

Continuing to invest in key landscapes is essential to PLJVs goals of conserving grassland and wetland habitat. One of the ways we do that is by investing in projects and organizations through our ConocoPhillips grant program.
 
In 2017, PLJV awarded a ConocoPhillips grant to the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, which New Mexico Land Conservancy used as a partial match for a small NAWCA grant. This, in turn, helped to purchase an easement on a portion of the Fort Union Ranch. This ranch is part of an area in northeastern New Mexico that the New Mexico Land Conservancy has worked with NRCS to designate as a Grassland of Special Environmental Significance. 
 
In April of this year, New Mexico Land Conservancy wrapped up the protection of the Taylor Springs Ranch, located just up the road from Fort Union Ranch, using funds from another ConocoPhillips grant. This project has leveraged over $342,000 in NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program match which New Mexico Land Conservancy will be using to conserve a third ranch in northeastern New Mexico in 2020. Once completed, the three projects together will cover 26,494 acres of land.
 
In their final report the New Mexico Land Conservancy noted ”this money would likely not have been available without the commitments from PLJV and ConocoPhillips.”
Coming up: Watch for more information on our most recent ConocoPhillips capacity grant in future Playa Post issues.
Playa conservation continues in Clovis

For several years, PLJV has been working with local leaders and community members in Clovis, New Mexico to conserve playas as part of the city’s municipal water plan. The goal of the project is to restore 700 acres of playas, and restoration is underway on 161 playa acres, with another 49 playa acres currently being considered for the program.
 
Elise Goldstein, assistant chief of wildlife for New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, said the project is a great example of a variety of partners coming together to preserve water for communities and habitat for wildlife. 
 
“New Mexico Department of Game and Fish found a way to make a big difference for wildlife in these private grasslands where we haven’t been able to engage very actively in the past — and now we can,” Goldstein said. “Now we have a partnership with the city, Central Curry Soil and Water Conservation District, PLJV and other agencies to try and protect both the human and wildlife communities that rely on it. When we partner together, we can move forward and make positive change on the landscape.”
Read: Ongoing outreach is key to community-wide playa conservation in Clovis.
More information: Technical and financial resources are available to help landowners and producers who want to restore playas on their land. Learn more at playasworkfornewmexico.com.
Partnering for restoration in northeastern New Mexico 

Nearly two years ago, private lands biologist Kaitlyn Nafziger started looking for opportunities to expand habitat conservation across the northeastern portion of New Mexico.
 
Nafziger works for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to promote wildlife habitat improvement on private lands through USDA Farm Bill programs.
 
Since she began in this role, Nafziger has assisted private landowners in improving their land through infrastructure changes or treating environmental problems such as invasive species or erosion issues. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has also worked with Nafziger to identify ways in which she can help better reach private landowners who have playas on their property.
 
“This partnership with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is a great way to assist them in getting more conservation work on the ground,” Nafziger said. “I like to think of it as connecting the dots between public and private lands with conservation work.”
Facebook Facebook
pljv.org pljv.org
YouTube YouTube
View this email in your browser

Photo Credits
Prescribed fire sign (Gwen Kolb)
Taylor Springs Ranch (New Mexico Land Conservancy)
Kaitlyn Nafziger working with hawks in the Manzano mountains within Cibola National Forest in 2019 (Kaitlyn Nafziger)

Copyright © 2020 Playa Lakes Joint Venture, All rights reserved.

Mailing Address
2675 Northpark Drive, Suite 208, Lafayette CO 80026
303-926-0777

Subscription
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe to the Playa Post here.






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Playa Lakes Joint Venture · 2675 Northpark Drive, Suite 208 · Lafayette, CO 80026 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp