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Healthy Grasslands, Healthy Wildlife

WWF is partnering with ranchers in the Northern Great Plains (NGP), recognizing that their viability is key to keeping grasslands intact. North America's great grasslands evolved to be dependent on the actions of large grazing animals such as plains bison and antelope. To...

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Partnerships, Innovation (and Peanut Butter) Give New Hope for America’s Most Endangered Mammal

An unlikely combination of peanut butter and drones has given biologists renewed hope for the future of North America’s rarest mammal, the endangered black-footed ferret. Biologists are helping these fascinating animals and their main prey—prairie dogs—fight a deadly plag...

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An Innovative Boost for Black-footed Ferrets

In partnership with Topcon, WWF used a drone to map and evaluate habitat for endangered black-footed ferrets. Only about 300 of the slender, masked carnivores are left in the wild today. Scientists must monitor prairie dog colonies to determine current and potential new h...

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Introducing the Northern Great Plains

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Prairie Chicken Mating Dance

Male prairie chickens select “booming grounds” or “lek” sites from which they perform elaborate dances and call for a mates. During the dance, the male’s neck feathers crop up over its head, and large yellow-orange air sacs in the neck and above the eye puff out. Multiple...

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Fort Peck Bison Restoration

In November 2014, the tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation received a second installment of genetically pure Yellowstone bison from Ted Turner's Montana ranch. Turner had been the caretaker of the bison for several years. The move to Fort Peck, which was supported b...

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Bison Sweeping Snow

A bison sweeps his muzzle across snow to find food during the winter. Bison do not move south as the weather grows cold and inhospitable, though they may move to lower elevations where snow is not so deep. They eat grasses to survive.

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Cattle and Conservation: Water

Discover the importance of water and range management in the grassland ecosystem of the Northern Great Plains.

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Cattle and Conservation: Supply Chain

Learn about sustainability across the beef supply chain, and where WWF’s Northern Great Plains Program fits in.

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Cattle and Conservation: Birds

Learn about the relationship between ranching and grassland bird habitat in the Northern Great Plains.

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Cattle and Conservation: Ranching with Wildlife

Discover how ranchers in north-central Montana are stewarding their land as part of the broader ecosystem. Meet WWF’s Nancy Labbe, rancher Leo Barthelmess and learn about the work Ranchers Stewardship Alliance. Together, we’re working to champion grassland conservation th...

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Stewards of America's Last Grasslands

Ranchers in the Northern Great Plains talk about the unique landscape they work with every day and why it must be preserved. Learn more about WWF's work in the Northern Great Plains.

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A Ranching Tradition

The Perman family shares the story of ranching through generations. WWF works with ranchers like the Permans in the Northern Great Plains to conserve America's last intact grasslands for generations to come. Learn more about WWF's work in the Northern Great Plains.

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Ranchers of the Northern Great Plains

The grasslands of the Northern Great Plains are important not just for families like the Permans that ranch there but for all Americans. WWF works with ranchers to preserve America's last intact grasslands. Learn more about WWF's work in the Northern Great Plains.

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Farm Bill: Stand Up and Protect America's Grasslands

Update: On February 4th, the US Congress passed the 2014 Farm Bill and ensured your tax dollars will not incentivize the plow-up and drainage of native grasslands and wetlands. America’s Northern Great Plains is one of the last four intact grasslands in the world. Stretc...

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Saving Nebraska's Sandhills

Through ecotourism operations and an annual Prairie Chicken Festival, the Switzer Ranch realized the immense importance of acting to conserve the Sandhills of Nebraska and their native life. Read more