2014 Annual Report - Playa Lakes Joint Venture

Our Vision
Birds are an integral part
of our environment and
essential for the health and
beauty of our world.
At Playa Lakes Joint Venture,
we envision a future when
the ecosystems within our
region sustain birds and
other wildlife in concert with
humans and our activities.
Our Mission
To conserve the
playas, prairies and
landscapes of the
western Great Plains
through partnerships
for the benefit of birds,
other wildlife,
and people.
2014 Annual Report
Welcome
Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) continues to work hard to
integrate wildlife and playa conservation in a largely private
and agricultural landscape. In 2014, all the things you expect
from PLJV continued — like the Playa Country radio show,
Playa Conservation Initiative projects, and the long-running
ConocoPhillips granting program, which has surpassed $2.4
million in total contributions. ConocoPhillips even upped the
ante this year, doubling their contribution to also provide
grants for Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation projects.
This year, we had key successes in supporting the Natural
Resources Conservation Service’s Ogallala Aquifer Initiative
and communicating the findings from 13 landowner focus
groups held across all six PLJV states. These are especially
important because it demonstrates that PLJV cares about
the aquifer in supporting our agricultural producers and
we value their opinions in carrying out our main mission of
wildlife conservation.
We continue to encourage producers to care more about
playas — not just as wildlife habitat, but because they
recharge the aquifer. Putting all this together is no easy task,
but we have recently adopted a landscape design framework
with some very powerful tools and smart people guiding the
process. It is exciting to see how these efforts are drawing
new partners, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and
the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative.
We had a good year and hope you enjoy reading about it!
Billy Tarrant
Board Chairman
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Mike Carter
Coordinator
Above: Playas dot the agricultural landscape.
Photo courtesy of Brian Slobe.
2014 Management Board
Billy Tarrant, Chairman
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
Tammy VerCauteren, Vice-chair
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory
Scott Manley, Treasurer
Ducks Unlimited
Eileen Dey, Secretary
ConocoPhillips
Eric Banks
USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Steve Conrady
Oklahoma Department of
Wildlife Conservation
Greg Hughes
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, Southwest Region
Joe Kramer
Kansas Department of
Wildlife, Parks & Tourism
Jared McJunkin
National Wild Turkey
Federation
Clint Riley
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, Mountain-Prairie
Region
Dan Snodgrass
The Nature Conservancy
Scott Taylor
Nebraska Game & Parks
Commission
Steve Tryon
Bureau of Land
Management
Jeff Ver Steeg
Colorado Parks & Wildlife
Rod Winkler
USDA Farm Service
Agency
Darrel Weybright
New Mexico Department
of Game & Fish
Melanie Woolever
U.S. Forest Service
Steve Riley
Pheasants Forever / Quail
Forever
Above: American Avocets.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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About Us
What Does Playa Lakes Joint Venture Do?
PLJV is a partnership organization that facilitates
cooperation among a broad coalition of partners to develop
and implement habitat conservation throughout the
western Great Plains — including portions of Colorado,
Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
We provide regional planning, value-added efficiency
and implementation approaches, while our partners
provide financial, technical and local expertise to develop
conservation projects. In addition, we support local
conservation partnerships, state agencies, and other
partners by developing various decision support tools, as
well as education about how to use those tools to target and
deliver the most effective habitat conservation.
PLJV also works with a variety of partners to inform
landowners about conservation programs and to target
conservation efforts in areas that will provide the most
benefit. In the western Great Plains, private landowners
play an important role in bird conservation. Because 97
percent of the land within the PLJV region is privately
owned, conservation must happen on private lands. Through
enrollment in various Farm Bill programs, such as the
Conservation Reserve Program, landowners help conserve
bird populations throughout the region. Partnerships such
as these are the key to our success.
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Above: Grazing Management group discuss partnership opportunities.
Photo courtesy of Tim Christian.
About Us
2014 Staff
Mike Carter
Coordinator
Bob McCready
Deputy Coordinator
Anne Bartuszevige
Conservation Science Director
Barth Crouch
Conservation Policy Director
Alex Daniels
Geographic Information Systems Director
Linda Foster
Business Manager
Miruh Hamend
Communications Director
Andrew Mackintosh
Business Operations Director
Christopher Rustay
Conservation Delivery Leader
Kyle Taylor
Geographic Information Systems Analyst
Above: Researchers gather samples for playa invertebrate study.
Photo courtesy of Anne Bartuszevige.
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Playa Country
Radio Show
Landowner Permanently Protects Playa
in Virgin Grassland
Meet Mark Hilliard. He’s an art professor. He manages
the family farm in Plainview, Texas. And he’s restoring a
playa lake on 95 acres of virgin grassland he bought from
his family. A year ago, Mark put this land under a perpetual
wetlands conservation easement.
But hold on a minute. We’re in West Texas, oftentimes bone
dry, West Texas... and there’s a Wetlands Reserve Easement
in these parts? That’s right.
According to Mark, “They’re
We can’t play you an episode
finally beginning to recognize
here in this report,
that we have wetlands out here.”
but the show often features
stories like this one.
Mark finished the paperwork
with the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) in November 2013, and
now the project — restoring and protecting the playa — is
underway.
“The nice thing about this playa,” says Mark, “it has never
been plowed, never had a big nasty tailwater pit dug in it,
never been abused. It’s real simple on the dirt work.”
A perpetual conservation easement seems like a huge and
sobering decision, to forever give up the ability to build on
the land or put it into production. But Mark says it was a
really easy decision, even though he lost his cattle income off
the property.
“I was making $100 a month cattle rent. By the time I pump
the water and keep the electric fence hot, I’m not making
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Above: Kansas landowner and Farm Bill Biologist discuss
conservation plan. Photo courtesy of Larry Kruckenberg.
Playa Country
Radio Show
any money. So it was time to do something different. And
there are still opportunities to generate income through
ecotourism, pheasant hunting and things of that nature.”
Under a permanent easement contract, NRCS pays 100
percent of the easement value and up to 100 percent of
restoration costs. Under a 30-year easement, NRCS pays up
to 75 percent of the easement value, and up to 75 percent of
costs. Mark advises interested landowners talk to their local
NRCS office. “Get an evaluation of the property and see what
needs to be done.”
PLJV produces a weekly
4½-minute Playa Country
radio show, which airs on
some of the highest rated
farm and public radio stations
across the western Great
Plains. The show features
conservation and wildlife
experts — as well as farmers,
ranchers and land managers
— talking about conservation
practices that improve habitat
for wildlife and improve the
bottom-line for landowners.
To learn more, listen to Playa
Country on one of the radio
stations listed here or online at
pljv.org/news/playa-country.
KVRN
Lexington, NE
Saturdays - 7:44A
KFRM
Salina, KS
Wednesdays - 11:20A
KFYO
Lubbock, TX
Wednesdays - 6:24A
KSIR
Fort Morgan, CO
Mondays - 8:00A hour
HPPR
Garden City, KS,
and Amarillo, TX
Tuesdays - 6:45P
KENW
Portales, NM
Tuesdays - 8:20A
KPAN
Hereford, TX
Thursdays - 11:55A
Above: Ring-necked Pheasant.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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Landscape Design
How Do We Create a Landscape for
the Long-billed Curlew?
Agriculture. Energy development. Drought. All of these are
present, and very active, in the PLJV region. So, how do we
do bird conservation when these factors hold sway and have
such an impact on the region’s economy? Landscape design.
Landscape design, a relatively recent concept in the scientific
literature, is a process for integrating human and wildlife
needs on the landscape. It is a way we can understand how
patterns and processes are operating in the region and
then determine where the conservation opportunities lie
— opportunities for adding
more habitat in areas where
Landscape design
the conservation investment
integrates societal values,
is likely to remain and
sets biological goals, and
opportunities for improving
and developing conservation
uses sound science based in
programs to meet the needs of
landscape ecology to provide
the region.
a variety of scenario plans that
describe where conservation
can best be achieved
and how it relates to
measurable goals.
The Long-billed Curlew, due to
grassland loss in the western
Great Plains, is a species of
high conservation concern
for the US Fish and Wildlife
Service and several state
wildlife agencies. Thus, this presents an opportunity to work
through the landscape design process to determine where
grassland and playa conservation should occur to meet
established population goals.
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Above: Playa surrounded by city and farmland.
Photo courtesy of Jerry Holden.
Landscape Design
This bird requires large blocks of shortgrass prairie for
breeding. In addition, densities of this bird are higher
in grassland patches that have at least one functioning
playa. We can develop models to predict where future
row-cropping may occur, and how energy development
might impact the landscape. We can also determine where
“permanent” conservation has already occurred (e.g.,
National Grasslands, BLM lands, etc.). By understanding
where future economic development is likely to occur,
we can develop conservation opportunities to conserve
or restore grasslands that have playas on them and also
restore the playas. The areas of “permanent” can also be
integrated into the larger landscape design so that the work
occurring on these areas can be understood in the broader
conservation context.
From the time PLJV completed its first round of
biological planning (in 2007-2008), staff have been
trying to figure out how we can do better. Many of the
assumptions made in the last round of planning were
made to simplify the landscape and the impact that
humans have in the western Great Plains. The staff
recognized that simply ‘adding more’ in a landscape
with agriculture and energy production pressures is
unrealistic. In 2014, the several year-long process
of brainstorming and discussing and conceptualizing
a new and better process was realized when we
launched landscape design. The first projects include
collaborations with the Great Plains Landscape
Conservation Cooperative and Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission.
Above: Long-billed Curlew.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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PLJV ConocoPhillips
Grant Program
Grant Helps Turn Cropland
Back into Wetland Habitat
ConocoPhillips continued their long-standing support of
bird conservation by giving $100,000 to support the PLJV
ConocoPhillips Grant Program in 2014. The money is used
to fund traditional habitat restoration, enhancement or
protection activities, as well as research and outreach that
result in on-the-ground conservation.
One such project, Pintail Marsh Improvements at
Jamestown Wildlife Management Area in Kansas, restored
120 acres of cropland by converting and restoring half the
acres into an emergent marsh
and planting the remaining
For the past 23 years,
acreage to grass or annual
ConocoPhillips
has contributed
agricultural plots. Kansas
Department of Wildlife,
over $2.4 million — which
Parks and Tourism installed
has been leveraged more than
earthen berms with water
three-fold — to help fund over
control structures to increase
260 conservation projects.
the moist soil vegetation and
create mudflats and shallow
water areas for use by shorebirds, waterbirds and waterfowl.
Managing the water levels allows the best foraging habitat
for migrating shorebirds, teal, pintails and cranes and
provides food through the spring/summer growing season.
The PLJV ConocoPhillips Grant Program also helps leverage
other conservation opportunities by providing much-needed,
non-federal match and additional partners to a project,
which are necessary when applying for other grants. For
example, the Pintail Marsh project will be used as match
in a future North American Wetlands Conservation Act
(NAWCA) grant proposal.
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Above: Jamestown Wildlife Management Area, Kansas.
Photo courtesy of Miruh Hamend.
2014 Accomplishments
PLJV influenced the conservation of 102,090 acres of
habitat this year: 97,769 acres of uplands and 5,321
acres of wetlands. The past five-year average for PLJV
accomplishments is 205,000 acres, while the previous
15-year average is 33,000 acres. The three main funding
sources used by partners are NAWCA grants, PLJV
ConocoPhillips grants and PLJV Capacity grants.
2014 Total Accomplishments
102,090 Acres
5%
ConocoPhillips
1%
3%
NAWCA Other
91%
Capacity Grants
2014 Wetland Accomplishments
5,321 Acres
22%
NAWCA
13%
ConocoPhillips
7%
Other
58%
Capacity Grants
Above: Sandhill Cranes.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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Playa Conservation
Initiative
PLJV’s Playa Decision Support System Helps
Partners Target Conservation and Win Grant
The Canadian River Riparian Restoration Project, a multiphase watershed-scale project focused on restoration of the
Canadian River in New Mexico, received $75,000 from the
North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) small
grants program in 2014. When developing the proposal,
the grantees used PLJV’s Playa Decision Support System to
determine which playas to restore, based on their value to
waterfowl, and referenced PLJV
research showing that clusters
The Playa Decision Support
of playas are more frequently
System is just one of
used by migrating waterfowl
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interrelated projects
and shorebirds than sparsely
that
comprise
PLJV’s Playa
distributed playas.
Conservation Initiative,
The Canadian River watershed is
which was launched in 2012
an important link for migrating
as a way to drive more
waterfowl between playas to the
playa conservation
south and east and breeding and
throughout the region.
staging areas to the north and
west. In addition to the Canadian
River, which is a perennial water source, there are numerous
playa lakes in the project area which provide foraging and
roosting areas when wet. However, these wetlands have
been diminished through the invasion of salt cedar and
Siberian elm along the river and through pitting of playas
which reduces hydroperiods and decreases desirable wetland
vegetation growth.
Funding from this grant will complete the invasives removal
on 68 acres of the Canadian River and restore 52 total acres
in three separate playas on the US Forest Service’s Kiowa
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Above: Playas provide food and shelter for migrating birds.
Photo courtesy of Brian Slobe.
Playa Conservation
Initiative
National Grassland. By filling in the pitted area of the playas,
these wetlands will be able to fill completely when significant
precipitation events occur, providing more food and habitat
for birds, as well as recharge to the Ogallala Aquifer, the
primary source of drinking water for the region.
The Playa Decision Support System is a series of GISbased tools designed to inform the conservation and
restoration of playas within our six-state region. The tools
help conservation partners make decisions about where to
focus their playa restoration efforts and provide guidance to
developers on which are the most important playas to avoid
when siting wind farms and other development.
Visit the PLJV website (pljv.org/playa-dss) to download:
1. spatial data layers representing playas prioritized for
development avoidance and restoration, clusters of
playas, and large isolated playas;
2. PDF maps displaying the above data layers for every
county in the PLJV region; and
3. a User’s Manual with written guidance on how to
apply and interpret the data layers and maps.
The Playa Decision Support System is just one of
14 interrelated projects that comprise PLJV’s Playa
Conservation Initiative, which was launched in 2012
as a way to drive more playa conservation throughout
the region. The projects focus on addressing current
conservation challenges and taking advantage of
available opportunities.
Learn more at pljv.org/pci.
Above: Northern Pintails.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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Financial Report
2014 Revenue
$1,026,086
19%
Federal & State
Grants
5%
Contributions
7%
Private Grants
69%
U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service
2014 Expenses
$962,155
22%
Monitoring, Evaluation
& Research
9%
Operations
28%
Project Planning &
Implementation
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Above: Great Horned Owl.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
30%
Program
Coordination
11%
Communications
Conservation in the
Western Great Plains
PLJV lies at the heart of the Central Flyway, an important
migration corridor, wintering, and breeding area that
supports millions of birds throughout the year. The native
grasslands, wetlands, rivers, and streams in this area
provide habitat for a myriad of plants, insects, amphibians
and continentally important populations of waterfowl,
shorebirds, waterbirds, and many other migratory and
resident birds. However, these habitats are becoming
increasingly rare in this agriculture-dominated landscape
and, consequently, the native wildlife populations that
depend upon them are also declining.
Of particular concern is
loss of playa wetlands.
Playas are the most
numerous and pervasive
wetland habitat in the
region and therefore
critical to wildlife health
and survival. They are
also the primary source
of recharge for the
Ogallala Aquifer. The
biggest threat to playas
is sedimentation, which
occurs when rain or
irrigation runoff carries
loose soils into the playa
basin, gradually filling
it. Sediment build up
reduces the volume of
water playas can hold and increases the rate of evaporation,
thus reducing habitat and limiting recharge.
Above: Lark Bunting.
Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.
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www.pljv.org
© Copyright 2015. Playa Lakes Joint Venture. All rights reserved.
On the Cover: Green-winged Teal. Photo courtesy of Tom Grey.