Northern Great Plains

WWF's strategy in the Northern Great Plains includes creating new conservation areas as well as encouraging biodiversity-friendly farming and grazing practices.
© Daniel J Cox / NaturalExposures.com

Collaborating with local, regional and national partners, we are working to increase the amount of land managed primarily for wildlife from less than 2 percent to 10 percent of the region’s native habitat. We are advancing grassland conservation by establishing conservation areas, promoting best management practices for sustaining biodiversity on farms and ranches and working with local communities to create economic opportunities linked to conservation. Read more about the science that informs WWF's conservation of the Northern Great Plains. 

Conservation Economics Ecotourism Program

Lodge at a Namibian Conservancy
© WWF/ Gina De Ferrari

WWF’s Conservation Economics Program is leading efforts to establish ecotourism in the Northern Great Plains to support wildlife conservation and invigorate local economies. A major component of the program is to have land managers, tribal leaders and policy makers from the Northern Great Plains learn from Namibian conservation models. Namibia, a country in Southern Africa, provides one of the most successful models globally both in terms of increasing wildlife numbers and bringing economic benefits to communities and land managers. The goal of the ecotourism program is to apply knowledge and techniques from successful models in Namibia to the Northern Great Plains. WWF started the project in partnership with the Nebraska based Grassland Foundation in 2007.

The American Prairie Reserve project
The goal of the American Prairie Reserve (APR) project is to assemble a large-scale conservation landscape in northeast Montana that harbors diverse and abundant native wildlife, preserves public access to and enjoyment of native prairie, and demonstrates the economic benefits of protected areas and natural amenities to local communities.

In 2001, WWF helped launch this ambitious project, which is led by American Prairie Foundation (APF), a Montana-based land trust.  APF is building American Prairie Reserve using private funding to acquire private lands and eventually link them to an existing two million acres of public grasslands. In so doing, APF is fostering public benefits by providing public access for recreational and educational activities and supporting local businesses.

A large-scale prairie reserve will restore a breathtaking wildlife spectacle.
© Daniel J Cox / NaturalExposures.com

WWF is leading the research and restoration of APR’s wildlife and grassland ecosystem. In the surrounding landscape, WWF is partnering with public and tribal wildlife and land managers on wildlife conservation and creating or encouraging opportunities and incentives for biodiversity conservation on private lands.

Conata Basin 
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. 

Transboundary Prairie Conservation Project
While the Northern Great Plains ecoregion spans five American states and two Canadian provinces, wildlife knows no political borders. Recognizing the importance of working across boundaries, WWF is preserving the region's key species and their habitats. The goal of WWF's Transboundary Prairie Conservation Project is to establish conservation areas connected by well-managed corridors along the U.S.-Canadian border and to foster greater binational cooperation for habitat and wildlife conservation.

WWF is working in the prairies that straddle Montana's border with Alberta and Saskatchewan to foster the development and expansion of protected areas within large grassland landscapes. We are also leading biodiversity conservation efforts that recognize the importance of contiguity of grassland landscapes. Our work to restore and maintain the abundance and distribution of key species in Canada is an important feature of these efforts. These species include the prairie dog, the black-footed ferret, the sage grouse, the pronghorn and the plains bison, among the region's most ecologically important species.

Protecting keystone species
WWF is leading efforts to restore two of the region’s keystone species—bison and prairie dogs—and their ecological roles. Both species are integral parts of the prairie ecosystem; however, their populations have been reduced to less than 2 percent of their historical abundance. From establishing a new conservation herd of bison, to collaborating on the development of a North American bison conservation strategy, to expanding existing prairie dog towns, WWF is supporting the recovery of these and scores of other species.

The mountain lion, or cougar, is native to the Northern Great Plains.
© WWF / Howard Buffett

Cougar research with Native Americans
In the plains of Montana, WWF is a partnering with the Gros Ventre, Assiniboine and Chippewa-Cree communities to learn how the restoration of cougar populations will affect the residents and economies of the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boys Indian Reservations. The cougar population has grown in this region in recent years after being largely extirpated in the early 1900s. The WWF research team is led by WWF senior fellow Dr. Kyran Kunkel, who is working with local tribal biologists to assess the size and distribution of the cougar population and their habitat and prey needs.

Large carnivores - such as cougars - are critical to maintaining a balanced prairie ecosystem. Yet in agricultural settings, their natural hunting behaviors can conflict with humans in the form of livestock predation. This is a potential challenge for the reservations, whose economies center on livestock grazing and agriculture. The results of this collaborative study will help guide the planning of cougar management and conservation in the region.

Learn about the partnerships that make this work possible.