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Northern Great Plains
Results
WWF’s Northern Great Plains program began in 2000. Since then, WWF has played an integral role in charting a sustainable future for the region. By bringing together local communities, landowners, governments, scientists, conservation experts and industry, we are achieving lasting results in the conservation and restoration of the region’s natural heritage.
Bison reintroduction project
In May 2006 we celebrated the arrival of the first calves born into the herd of American bison that WWF and APF have successfully reintroduced into the American Prairie Reserve of northeast Montana. While most of the 500,000 American bison currently in public or commercial herds contain some cattle DNA (the result of cross-breeding efforts at the beginning of the 20th century), this conservation herd has been drawn from bison at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, one of the genetically healthiest herds in North America that shows no sign of cattle DNA.
The American Prairie Reserve's herd of free-ranging bison welcomed its first new arrivals in May 2006.
© Steven Morello
Over the next five years, the herd will grow to over 200 bison, with a long-term goal of several thousand. The herd is destined to become one of the most important in North America, significantly helping to preserve and to restore the bison's traditional role on the plains. WWF is also taking a leading role, in collaboration with various conservation groups and governmental agencies, to develop a continent-wide action plan to conserve the plains bison.
Light at the end of the tunnel for the black-footed ferret.
© Daniel J Cox / NaturalExposures.com
Conata basin program
WWF has been achieving results in South Dakota's Conata Basin, which contains the world's largest population of the endangered black-footed ferret. The 2.8 million acre landscape includes the 180,000 acre Badlands National Park, the largest grasslands park in the United States. The Basin includes habitat for some 25,000 acres of prairie dog colonies, which in turn provide habitat and food for the ferret.
WWF supports ongoing field research on the black-footed ferret, one of North America's most endangered animals. The ferret is now at the center of a desperate fight to ensure its survival, after the species had very nearly become extinct, due in large part to the elimination of the prairie dog colonies upon which the ferret depends for food. Ferrets have been reintroduced on National Grasslands in the Conata Basin, and WWF has worked hard to turn back proposals to poison prairie dogs in this area. WWF will continue to defend the reintroduction area from threats such as these, through incentive programs, land acquisition, and direct conservation action.
Notable Accomplishments
2000s
- Founding partner of American Prairie Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization that purchases private lands for conservation
- Published, in cooperation with 16 local, regional and national conservation groups, “Ocean of Grass,” a landmark regional assessment of biodiversity
- In cooperation with American Prairie Foundation, established the American Prairie Reserve in northeast Montana to create a unique public-private conservation project
- Established a new conservation herd of bison on the American Prairie Reserve in Montana—the first time in 120 years that America’s largest land mammal has roamed these wild lands
- Launched the Grasslands 2010 project with Grassland Foundation to establish a common framework for conserving wildlife and creating reserves on private lands
- Developed with U.S. and Canadian partners a plan to conserve critical native prairie stretching across the U.S.-Canada border
