MISSOURI
4
Number of TNC Habitat Strike Teams in Missouri What Are Habitat Strike Teams?
Partners in the Prairie Conservation groups team up for the grasslands TNC staff from Missouri and Iowa pose with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland at Drake University. From left: Ryan Gauger, Megan Buchanan, Sec. Haaland, Graham McGaffin and Adam McLane. © TNC The remains of the prairie are scattered across the heart of North America. A few thousand acres here. A hundred there. Today, they appear on maps as islands, but their future depends on a different framework—one that recognizes them as pieces of a whole, waiting to reconnect. In the same way, The Nature Conservancy and a lineup of talented conservation agencies and organizations have banded together to address dwindling grasslands of Missouri and Iowa. In November, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the group was being awarded $4.73 million through the America the Beautiful Challenge. The federal initiative is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to conserve, connect and restore 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Matching funds raise the group’s total to $5.3 million. The plan unites partners working all along a corridor of grasslands, ranging from southwest Missouri into Iowa. The group includes TNC, Missouri Department of Conservation, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Jay N. Darling Institute at Drake University and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The collaboration will combine the partners’ individual strengths to focus on entire landscapes. That includes building capacity to do the work through new jobs, student internships and training workshops for young professionals and landowners. There will be cost-sharing opportunities for landowners to implement conservation practices and help with on-the-ground stewardship. The group will reconstruct and manage 28,000 acres of prairie in some of the most important areas for biodiversity. More than 90 percent of land in Missouri is privately owned, and the grantees will strengthen local relationships and support those landowners. That will include a significant expansion of TNC’s Habitat Strike Team program, creating a new team and fully staffing another. They will deploy to plug into prescribed fire crews, battle invasive species and help reseed key areas. One will be stationed in the Grand River Grasslands and the other in the Osage Plains. The teams will be collaborators by design, ready to pitch in for the good of the prairies.
Isaiah Tanner, coordinator for one of TNC’s Habitat Strike Teams © Doyle Murphy/TNC
The four-person teams, each comprising a full-time coordinator and three seasonal crew members, are mobile units designed to combat invasive species and help restore vulnerable landscapes. TNC is staging the teams in different parts of the state. Members will be skilled in using prescribed fire and other methods to fight unwanted shrubs, trees and other plants that can overwhelm native species. They’ll also help reseed some areas. The teams can work on projects on their own, but they’re designed to be highly collaborative with government agencies, conservation groups and private landowners. They will add much needed capacity, especially during time-sensitive burn windows.
LEARN MORE about TNC’s strike teams at nature.org/mostriketeams
facebook.com/natureconservancymissouri nature.org/linkedinmo Instagram.com/nature_missouri
Missouri missouri@tnc.org nature.org/missouri
The Nature Conservancy P.O. Box 440400 St. Louis, MO 63144
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker