Project Titles:

• Invasive Species Control – Cienegas (FFS #R2EA)
• Restore Native Ecosystems (FFS #R2EB)
• Prairie Chicken Habitat Restoration (FFS #R2EC)
• Prairie Chicken Ecosystem Restoration (FFS #R2ED)
• Hardwood Reforestation (FFS #R2EE)

State: Regionwide

Initial Project Description: The Southwest Region has entered into several partnerships to complete projects that will benefit ecosystems and economies in New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas. These projects will have positive impacts on many species native to the Southwest Region, including the Louisiana black bear and the lesser prairie chicken. Read the updates below to find out what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are accomplishing with Recovery Act funding in your state!

Conservation Partnership Projects in New Mexico

Six conservation projects designed to improve wildlife habitat on privately owned land in New Mexico will take place in cooperation with the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. The projects use Recovery Act funds and cooperative funding from the Service’s partners to create jobs, protect the nation’s fish and wildlife resources, and complete long-standing priority needs. More specifically, the projects will restore habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, restore desert grassland habitat, restore parts of the Burro Cienega and its tributaries, and generally restore native ecosystems.

The New Mexico projects include:

• A cooperative agreement with the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management in Carlsbad. The Center will work with private landowners to develop conservation measures that benefit habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, a species that exists in only five states and whose population has declined. Conservation measures will include removal of old fencing and control of invasive species such as mesquite to promote nesting.
• A partnership with a landowner north of Las Vegas to improve habitat for the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act.
• Two agreements with private landowners southwest of Silver City for in-stream channel and riparian wetlands habitat improvements to restore the Burro Cienaga and its tributaries.
• An agreement with the Whittington Center in Raton to thin pinon and juniper on private lands to benefit migratory birds.
• A cooperative agreement with Earth Works Institute in Santa Fe to partner with private landowners to improve in-stream and riparian wetlands habitat in the Galisteo Creek Watershed.

For more information on the Partnership Projects in New Mexico, view the Partnership Projects in Northern New Mexico Report!

Feature Story: Separ, New Mex. Ranch Owners Restore Waterways with Service Partner’s Project

News Release: Recovery Act Funds Used by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for Partnership to Restore Chihuahuan Desert

Podcast: Partner’s Projects Improve Ranchers’ Lands
Play to podcast below to learn about two ranch owners’ experience with the Recovery Act! 

Conservation Partnership Projects in Arizona

The Recovery Act enabled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enter into agreements for three conservation projects designed to improve wildlife habitat on privately owned land in Arizona. The projects will target invasive species, habitat restoration, and wetland restoration.

The Arizona projects include:

• Restoration projects in cooperation with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and private landowners to benefit threatened and endangered species, neotropical migratory birds and water quality. The Arizona Game and Fish Department will work with private landowners to restore riparian, wetland or grassland ecosystems through measures such as planting vegetation, controlling invasive species and restoring streams. The department estimates that as many as 450 acres of private land could be restored through the projects.
• Invasive species control projects that improve wildlife habitat, decrease the potential for wildfires, and help raise soil moisture content. The Arizona Game and Fish Department will assist private landowners with the implementation of projects designed to control and eradicate invasive species.
• Implementation of a Rapid Response Program in Cochise County that targets invasive species such as Russian knapweed, yellow starthistle, Malta starthistle and onionweed. In partnership with the Coronado Resource Conservation & Development Area, the rapid response system is being developed with five natural resource conservation districts and offers private landowners the opportunity work with local conservation districts to identify and eradicate invasive plants. Problems associated with invasive plants include decreased diversity in native plants and animal species, increased potential for wildfires, depletion of soil moisture content and the availability of food for wildlife. Approximately 500 acres infested with invasive plants will be treated through the program.  

Conservation Parnership Projects in Oklahoma

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed agreements for five conservation projects designed to improve ecosystems and wildlife habitat on privately owned land in Oklahoma. As part of the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, the projects use Recovery Act funding to create work and protect the nation’s fish and wildlife resources.

The Oklahoma projects are part of the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture, a cooperative effort between federal and state agencies. Three of the projects are being completed in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, including:

• Removal of invasive species, such as red cedar, in the northwest part of the state. The project will improve habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, a species that exists in only five states and whose population is declining.
• Improvement of habitat through removal of invasive species from private lands.
• Restoration of bottomland hardwood in eastern Oklahoma.

News Release: Using Recovery Act Funds, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Creates Partnerships for Conservation Projects in Oklahoma

Conservation Partnership Projects in Texas

Four conservation projects funded by the Recovery Act will be completed in Texas in association with the Nature Conservancy. These projects will improve wildlife habitat on privately owned land throughout the state. The Nature Conservancy projects in Texas include prescribed burning on private lands in East Texas for Louisiana black bear recovery efforts. In addition, invasive vegetation control and wildlife habitat restoration projects will be completed in the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos areas, as well as other locations statewide. The projects will enhance more than 4,000 acres by eradicating invasive vegetation such as juniper. Woody plants such as juniper increase the risk of wildfire and soil erosion, impact wildlife habitat diversity, and may have negative implications for water conservation.

Another of the projects in Texas focuses on the restoration of the ecosystem for the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, in the Texas Panhandle. The project will include about 13,000 acres of private land in Cochran, Hockley, Wheeler and Collingsworth counties. The last project features an agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Coastal Prairies Coalition of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) will restore habitat for Attwater’s Prairie Chicken, a federally listed endangered species. The agreement provides Recovery Act funding, as well as cooperative funding, to work with private landowners on the Texas coastal prairie to restore or enhance more than 900 acres of habitat for the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken and other grassland-dependent birds in Refugio and Goliad counties.

News Release: Using Recovery Act Funds, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Creates Partnerships for Conservation Projects in Texas Panhandle

June 16, 2011 Project Update: The underrated importance of prescribed grassland burns was addressed by the Service, in Recovery Act Project #R2ED, completed near the Texas-Mexico border last year. The Partner’s project to burn grassland to foster native vegetation growth was conducted, with the help of The Nature Conservancy on 5 private ranches in Brewster, Jeff Davis, and Presidio Counties. Steve Arey, USFWS Private Lands Fish and Wildlife Biologist, outlined the five goals the project hoped to accomplish:

1. Help to familiarize landowners with the use of prescribed fire as an economical and ecologically beneficial land management tool;
2. Reduce invasive brush such as creosote bush, tarbush, and honey mesquite on grassland and grassland Savannah’s;
3. Improve grazing lands and grassland health and vigor;
4. Enhance wildlife habitat and watershed health; and,
5. Reduce the risk of catastrophic fires by preventing the buildup of vegetation that fuels more severe burns.

Arey feels that increasing landowner education with prescribed burns is crucial for the area; “the invasive species growth makes it harder for native vegetation to rejuvenate. These burns will have a beneficial effect to some of our local migrating birds, a few of them are made to coexist with fire.”

Among the species Arey expects to benefit are the Ferruginous Hawk, Aplomado Falcon, Sprague’s Pipit, Cassin’s Sparrow, Botteri’s Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, and Baird’s Sparrow. The benefits occur as the native grasslands, once displaced will have a chance to re-grow and provide shelter for the birds and their prey species. The project was carried out on a total of 1,523 non-contiguous acres of land, as part of a larger series of prescribed burns In the area.

June 27, 2011 Project Update: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed three Recovery Act Partner’s Projects, listed number R2EA, in Arizona. The three projects are intended to conserve habitat, improve water quality, restore native ecosystems, and control invasive species in important desert grassland areas.

The Service entered into an agreement with the Arizona department of Game and Fish on three projects:

Forty-thousand dollars were earmarked to eliminate White Thorne Acacia on the Bobacamari Ranch in Cochise County. White Thorne Acacia is an invasive species that outcompetes the native plant life and eventually overgrows large sections of arid grassland. Project manager Al Eiden of the Arizona Department of Game and Fish commented, “the project is great! You get a response immediately. We have been working for seven years and we are getting natives coming back, including early growing perennial grass species.”

The eradication which was conducted by aerial pellet drop, created work for a pilot as well as ground crew follow up. This project was completed inside of a larger project to eliminate 4,500 acres of White Thorne Acacia on bordering land.

Forty-thousand dollars were also budgeted for the removal of invasive juniper in the northern part of Arizona. Encroachment of junipers reduces the productivity of grasslands and can reduce the ability of water to percolate into the water table, increasing run off and sedimentation into local watersheds. The Recovery Act provided the funding for 790 acres of juniper eradication to allow the re-establishment of native plant life. “This project was intended to increase rodent life for food for native raptors,” Says Eiden. Rodents are the major food supply for the Ferruginous Hawks, Golden Eagles, and Northern Harriers in the area of the Carlisle Ranch, and the change in plant life led to harmful changes in the food chain. The objective of the project is to remove a majority of recent juniper trees while retaining large old growth junipers with a diameter of 10 inches or greater 12 inches above root collar. Trees will be cut and ground into mulch. Resprout on juniper is minimal and will not need further treatment.

The Juniper eradication project employed two people, and the herbicide supplies were purchased locally.

A pond was constructed for Roundtail Chub on Cane Springs Ranch near Kingman Arizona. The $65,000 project called for the refurbishment and re-excavation, of an one-acre, man-made pond, that was no longer functioning. The landowner did the work himself on this project, and provided work for a local evacuation company for four weeks.

October 2011 Project Update: A.T. and Cinda Cole continue what they call “the ranch’s never-ending work”, even after the completion of ARRA project #R2EB.

“We’ve finished tier one of the control structures, and are at work on tier two”, he says. “We are also salvaging tanks for irrigation and water for wildlife, we happen to have come across with a new method of water control in which you angle two willow trees toward each other and make a gash in each so that they grow together…” he explains excitedly from the airport on his way out of the country.

Cole says that this fall, they have re-introduced Rice Marsh Thistle, a historic native plant, to the ranch and is excited to have seen an upswing in the Aplomado Falcon and Chiricahua Leopard Frog population, but federally listed, and both critical to the area ecological chain. Having been through the grant process with many federal and state organization, Cole, counts the Service as one of his most positive experiences; “the work is ongoing, but we’ve been really encouraged by our dealings with Fish and Wildlife”, he says. “I can’t tell you how helpful they’ve been.”

Photos:

Originally posted 09/11/2009
Updated 09/30/2009
Updated 10/07/2009
Updated 09/14/2010
Updated 05/11/2011
Updated 05/26/2011
Updated 06/16/2011
Updated 06/27/2011
Updated 10/03/2011