The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Northern Great Plains Program is designed to conserve mixed grass prairie and associated wildlife populations of the northern prairie.
Partners
The vast grasslands of the Northern Great Plains support a unique assemblage of wildlife adapted to the wide open spaces. Thanks to generations of land stewardship by ranchers, Tribes and public agencies, much of the Northern Great Plains remains as native grassland that is productive for people and wildlife.
However, this unparalleled resource is facing threats including conversion to cropland, energy development, invasive species, and a lack of capacity to manage the grasslands of this vast region. NFWF’s Northern Great Plains program works with willing private landowners and local partners to address these challenges by conserving and restoring native prairie and wildlife while also enhancing local ranching and tribal communities.
Working through partnerships, NFWF’s goal is to directly maintain or improve 1 million acres of interconnected, native grasslands in focal areas within the Northern Great Plains to sustain healthy populations of grassland-obligate species while fostering sustainable livelihoods and preserving cultural identities.
Grants will be made to support conservation projects in four focal areas: Dakota Grasslands, Missouri-Milk River Grasslands, Powder River-Thunder Basin Grasslands and Nebraska Sandhills Grasslands.
Funding priorities include:
- Intact grasslands: Increase large intact grasslands by permanently conserving a minimum of 100,000 acres of native grasslands in core areas within the identified focal areas.
- Connectivity: Increase connectivity of core native grasslands by restoring a minimum of 150,000 acres of degraded habitat adjacent to native grasslands within identified focal areas.
- Working lands: Improve management on 750,000 acres of working land. Management agreements with landowners are an effective tool for implementing habitat improvements at large scales through prescribed grazing, fencing and livestock water development to facilitate rangeland management, and behavior modifications.
- Private ranchlands: Support existing rancher-based initiatives and engage new partners in delivery of conservation projects on ranching lands, including the delivery of Farm Bill and other federal programs that provide incentives for sound range management.
- Tribal communities: Support efforts to enhance or restore native prairie habitats and associated species that are culturally significant to Tribes; support participation of tribal biologists in species conservation or recovery programs; and increase access of Tribes to federal incentive programs.
- Grassland songbirds: Reduce the annual population decline of Baird’s sparrow, Sprague’s pipit, chestnut-collared and thick-billed longspur, and lark buntings.
- Pronghorn: Improve survival along major migratory routes for pronghorn populations by removing and modifying fence to minimize mortality at road crossings and bottleneck sites.
- Greater sage-grouse: Sustain populations of greater sage-grouse through the protection of 10,000 acres of habitat via conservation easements, restoration of 200 wet meadow acres and removing or marking fence around key leks in Sage Grouse Priority Areas of Conservation.
- Black-footed ferret: Through the application of sylvatic plague vaccine, establish and maintain three populations of black-footed ferret at sites identified as priority locations by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Additional information about funding priorities can be found in the Northern Great Plains Business Plan.
Application Information
| Program Fact Sheet | Download the PDF | |
| Northern Great Plains Business Plan | Download the PDF | |
| 2024 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2023 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2022 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2021 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2020 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2019 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2018 Grant Slate | Download the PDF | |
| 2017 Grant Slate | Download the PDF |
Director, Rocky Mountain Regional Office
Program Director, Grasslands and Mountain West
Manager, Rocky Mountain Regional Office
Regional Program Coordinator
Related Species
Long-billed curlew
Long-billed curlew are a charismatic member of the Northern Great Plains bird fauna. The species is North America's largest shorebird and are of conservation concern due to long-term declines and pervasive threats across both nesting and wintering locations. Long-billed curlews use their very long decurved bill to probe for crabs, shrimp and mollusks in the coastal marshes and mudflats of California and Mexico during their non-breeding period, and to pick up grasshoppers and other terrestrial insects as they trundle along through the prairie.
Burrowing owl
The burrowing owl is small with long legs, and found in open country throughout the Americas. Within the United States it is largely a western bird, with an isolated population in Florida. While the species is associated with burrowing animals, the Florida population digs its own burrows.
American badger
The American badger is a member of the Mustelidae, or weasel family, and is native to grasslands of North America. This fierce carnivore is an excellent excavator and digs burrows in pursuit of prey, raising young and sleeping.
Pronghorn
Pronghorn, also known as "antelope," are sagebrush-dependent ungulate known for their incredible speed. They are the sole-surviving member of their taxonomic family. With an evolutionary history rooted in open-grasslands, pronghorn are reluctant to leap over fences that have been constructed across the west for rangeland management, causing disruptions of their ancient migration routes and reducing access to high-quality habitat.
Mule deer
Mule deer are a social, migratory ungulate who are named for their large ears that resemble a mule's ears. An iconic species of the western United States, habitat loss and increased fragmentation of the landscape have caused localized declines in mule deer populations and reduced the function of critical migration paths.
Greater sage-grouse
The greater sage-grouse is a sagebrush-dependent upland game bird and largest of the grouse species. Known for its theatrical mating displays on "leks" or breeding grounds, populations have been in decline due to loss of sagebrush habitat, and their ability to serve as an umbrella species for other sagebrush wildlife emphasizes the need to restore and protect their habitats.
Chestnut-collared longspur
The chestnut-collared longspur is a striking songbird highly endemic to shortgrass prairies of North America known for its aerial displays when defending their territory. Named for the long claw on their hind toe, these ground nesting birds have been in decline due to loss of native prairie and pesticides that are thought to reduce hatching success.
Black-footed ferret
Thought to be extinct in the wild until 1981, the critically endangered black-footed ferret is North America's only native ferret species and a member of the weasel family. Loss of native grasslands, disease, and declines in prey abundance contributed heavily to their decline, but captive breeding and reintroduction programs have helped this species reestablish small portions of their historic range.
