Through the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), farmers receive an annual payment to enroll highly erodible cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage in the program. The Bird Conservancy provides landowners with technical assistance and recommendations for CRP establishment and management to enhance habitat for birds and other wildlife. Practices include inter-seeding forbs and legumes into grass stands, light disking, and grazing or burning portions of the grass stand. In addition, the Bird Conservancy can help landowners find cost-share assistance for CRP management, as well as converting expired CRP back to productive native rangelands, which offer better wildlife habitat than crop land.

The Bird Conservancy works with landowners to develop grazing management plans that meet the needs of wildlife without compromising the profitability of a ranch. The plans provide adequate rest from grazing on the land, making it possible for grasses and forbs to restore to a healthy state. This can improve rangeland health and diversify habitat for grassland birds and other wildlife while allowing producers more flexibility in their operation.

Bird Conservancy biologists and rangeland ecologists are trained to identify noxious weeds and other invasive plants and assist with removal. Depending on the type of weed and the degree of the infestation, a number of methods may be used to control weeds, including herbicide spraying, mechanical treatment, prescribed burning or grazing, or re-vegetation with native species. Contact a Wildlife Habitat Biologists from our Stewardship team for more information.

Our Wildlife Habitat Biologists help coordinate enhancement and improvement projects in wetland areas and associated wildlife habitat along playas and other seasonal wetlands, lakes, reservoirs, streams, rivers, springs and wet meadows. Common practices used to conserve or enhance wetlands include fencing to better manage grazing, providing alternate stock water sources, eradicating invasive weeds such as Russian olive and tamarisk (salt cedar), and re-vegetating areas to control erosion.

Access videos from a workshop on seasonal wetlands management held in Fort Morgan, Colorado, and a seasonal wetland “scorecard” worksheet from the workshop.