Fall 2007: Volume 28, Number 4 - Missouri Prairie Foundation

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Prairie-Chicken RecoveryAccomplishmentsIn 2006, the Missouri ConservationCommission made a bold decision. TheGovernor-appointed commissioners approveda five-year plan to increase the state’s greaterprairie-chicken population to 3,000 and holdit there for at least 10 years before delisting thisstate-endangered bird. Prairie-chickens havedeclined from hundreds of thousands in the 19thcentury to only about 500 individuals currentlyremaining in Missouri. They are imperiled todaybecause of outright loss of prairie habitat anddegradation of what few small prairie remnantsremain. Not only will the plan help prairie-chickens,but all the other prairie species that requirehigh quality grassland habitat.A Greater Prairie-Chicken Recovery Teamof MDC staff, formed in the summer of 2005,developed and carries out the plan, workingwith numerous organizations of the GrasslandsCoalition to carry out recovery efforts. TheMissouri Prairie Foundation (MPF) spearheadedthe formation of the Grasslands Coalitionin 1998, with the Missouri departments ofConservation and Natural Resources, The NatureConservancy, Audubon Society chapters andQuail Unlimited as key initial partners.The Greater Prairie-Chicken Recovery Planis necessarily ambitious: It calls for establishingseveral 10,000-acre grassland landscapes, basedon a Partners in Flight grassland bird habitatmodel, to support sustainable bird populationsin several locations in western and northernMissouri, all within Grasslands Coalition FocusAreas and associated Grassland ConservationOpportunity Areas. Each 10,000-acre area wouldcontain a nearly contiguous core of at least 2,000acres of high quality grassland that could includenative, restored or constructed prairie. Aroundthese core acres would be a matrix of scatteredtracts totaling an additional 2,000 acres of highquality grasslands, at least half of which are 100acres or more in size. The remaining 6,000 acreswithin these landscapes could include croplandor more intensively grazed pasture in a grasslandlandscape.Year in ReviewMDC Greater Prairie-Chicken Census Summary (2005-2007)Number of Male Greater Prairie-ChickensFocus Area 2005 2006 2007Green RidgeHi LonesomeStony Point/Horse CreekGolden/Dorris Creek PrairieTaberville PrairieEl Dorado Prairies68583190Grand River Grasslands (Pawnee Prairie) 61 23 17Mystic 13 6 9Prairie State Park/Shawnee Trails 14 1 3outside focus area boundaries 34 26 14Statewide 216 109 98Number of Greater Prairie-Chicken LeksFocus Area 2005 2006 2007Green RidgeHi LonesomeStony Point/Horse CreekGolden/Dorris Creek PrairieTaberville PrairieEl Dorado Prairies1114240Grand River Grasslands (Pawnee Prairie) 4 2 1Mystic 2 1 2Prairie State Park/Shawnee Trails 2 1 1outside focus area boundaries 12 9 3Statewide 42 26 224231214011812031350160119040NOppadol Paothong26
The information below and on the following pages summarizes the significant progress made on the planduring fiscal year 2007 (July 2006 through June 2007), taken from the FY07 Greater Prairie-Chicken RecoveryAccomplishments report compiled by Recovery Team Leader and MPF Technical Advisor Max Alleger.New Funding SecuredGrassland and prairie-chicken conservationpriorities attracted $2.5 million to GrasslandsCoalition Focus Areas (GCFAs). This totalincludes:• Fourteen grants from federal, state and privatesources totaling $807,000 to GrasslandsCoalition partners.• Missouri Department of Conservation(MDC) used $475,000 from federal WildlifeDiversity Funds (WDF) for prairie-chickenrecovery.• Coalition Partners tapped into another$160,200 through competitive WDF grants.• MDC staff enrolled GCFA landowners inUSDA programs worth $377,000. Theseprograms include the Wildlife HabitatIncentives Program (WHIP) and theEnvironmental Quality Incentives Program.• A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service LandownerIncentive Program grant will bring $700,000over three years to GCFAs.Missouri Grassland Focus Areas/Conservation Opportunity AreasGrassland ConservationOpportunity AreasGrasslands CoalitionFocus AreasIn 1998, the Grasslands Coalition identified core areas of the state that includedknown prairie-chicken booming grounds, and thus the best places to invest limitedresources to protect and restore grassland habitat. These Grasslands Coalition FocusAreas are now included or associated with Grassland Conservation Opportunity Areas(COAs), areas designated by the Missouri Department of Conservation in 2005 as partof Missouri’s Comprehensive Wildlife Strategy. They remain the best places in thestate to conserve prairie wildlife, to prevent the federal listing of any more plants oranimals as threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For a moredetailed map of COAs, see page 4.
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Page 28 and 29: Photos Emily HOrnerMissouri Departm
Page 30 and 31: Fall MPF Board Meeting andDevelopme
Page 32 and 33: Visit An MPF Prairie•Runge Prairi
Page 34 and 35: Calendar of Prairie-Related Events2
Page 36 and 37: Pure PrairieCoyne Acquisition Compl
Page 38 and 39: Pure PrairiePrairie ProfessionalsPr
Page 40 and 41: Pure PrairieEmployer Matching Gift
Page 42 and 43: Pure PrairieMPF’s Most Appreciati
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Fall 2007: Volume 28, Number 4 - Missouri Prairie Foundation

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