Along with APR President Sean Gerrity, Board members Gib Myers and George Matelich explain why the privately-funded American Prairie Reserve is one of the most ambitious conservation projects in the country. Now more than 10 years old and spanning nearly 275,000 acres, the Reserve is attracting philanthropists interested in building a diverse grasslands landscape for the enjoyment of the public and future generations.

An Entreprenurial Approach
President’s Message from Sean Gerrity

In March, I spoke at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West about American Prairie Reserve’s entrepreneurial approach to large-scale conservation. It was gratifying to see so many people, including young students, eager to discover how we are achieving conservation success through private contributions. The ensuing discussion focused on how the Reserve’s sure and steady growth is a powerful example of how a mission driven, non-governmental effort can result in one of the most ambitious conservation projects ever undertaken in American history.

Not Just Acres – Reserve Staff Grows

We’re excited to welcome two new staff members to our Reserve team, James Barnett (Reserve Supervisor) and Lars Anderson (Reserve Assistant). Both James and Lars will live full-time on the Reserve and greatly increase our capacity for restoration, bison and public access projects. We are also happy to bring two new families to the local area.

Your Gift – Doubled!

Thanks in part to a generous $50,000 matching grant from The John and Kelly Hartman Foundation, year-end fundraising in 2012 was a record-setting success. The Hartman Foundation has been a supporter since 2005, helping us expand our outreach to Montanans and annual donors of all levels. Your generous gifts over the holidays helped us not only meet, but exceed, the Foundation’s match, which doubled or even tripled the impact of $1–$1,000 gifts. Thank you to everyone who helped us achieve this ambitious goal!

Kids & Nature - By The Numbers

76 - Percent of youth ages 6-12 that participate in outdoor recreation to “be with family and friends.”
44 - Percent of campers that cite their father as the person that introduced them to camping.
8 - Age at which children can identify 25% more Pokémon video game characters than wildlife species.
6 - Hours spent a day in front of an electronic screen by an average American child.
1 - Ranking of “teenager” in a list of words least associated with “camping.”

sources »

Outdoor Foundation (2012) - Camping; Kaiser Family Foundation (2005); Balmford, Clegg, Coulson and Taylor (2002); Outdoor Foundation (2012) - Participation

Like a Needle in a Haystack

This spring, APR staff members and biologist Kyran Kunkel set out to expand our bison tracking efforts with an additional GPS collar. With more than 14,000 acres to roam, the Reserve’s bison population moves widely across the land. GPS collars are one way that we track these movements, and the information helps us make management decisions, like needed fence improvements.

A Gift That Doesn’t Need Wrapping

Last Christmas, Idaho residents Tom and Janet Rahl were inspired by National Geographic’s American Serengeti to make an unexpected gift to their kids and grandkids – a $1,000 donation to help build American Prairie Reserve.

A Moment in Time

The harsh winter of 2011 was catastrophic to pronghorn in the Reserve region. The Montana Game & Fish Department estimates that populations suffered up to 70 percent losses. Last month, Reserve Foreman Dennis Lingohr was surprised and encouraged by an increase in sightings of this uniquely North American mammal. As Dennis tells it, “I jumped out of my 4-wheeled office and snapped these images. You just never know what might greet you on the prairie.”

Interview: Why Are Some Species Rare In Nature?

In our last newsletter, we shared a new book from World Wildlife Fund Lead Scientist Eric Dinerstein, The Kingdom of Rarities. Eric, who also serves on APR’s National Council, has traveled the world to learn about and conserve rare species, including animals that call the prairie home. In this interview, APR President Sean Gerrity asks Eric why some species are naturally, or become, rare and how your efforts to build American Prairie Reserve can help. Read the full interview. 

Are Invasive Plants Hurting The Prairie? Your Questions Answered

Q: We see invasive species like Kudzu or the Emerald Ash Borer in southern and midwest areas; are there species that are hurting the prairie? – from Sarah on Facebook

“A Must See in 2013″ - What We’re Reading

The Missouri River Breaks region has been named a Top Destination for 2013 by National Geographic Traveler. A related article, now online, appeared in the Jan. 2013 issue of the magazine and includes the APR bison herd as one of region’s attractions. The Montana Quarterly also celebrated the Northern Plains in a photo essay written by Scott McMillion with stunning photographs by Montana’s Tony Bynum. Both articles will feed your adventurous spirit and inspire you to plan a 2013 trip to the Reserve area, even if it’s only as an armchair traveler.

Becky Hurlburt, Operations and Human Resources Assistant

As the Operations and Human Resources Assistant, Becky is a “Jill-of-all-trades” and serves as a central hub for projects related to technology, logistics, and personnel support. Becky grew up in Billings, Montana, and earned degrees in Business Administration and Spanish from Northwestern College and Montana State University-Billings, respectively. When asked what she is looking forward to about working at APR, Becky said that, in addition to spending time on the prairie, she is excited to learn from our Senior Management Team. In her free time, you can find her climbing and skiing.

Rachel Regan, Development Assistant

Rachel provides much-appreciated support to our fundraising efforts. From coordinating event materials to database management, she will help us reach organizational goals more efficiently than ever before. Rachel is originally from Alabama and brings a love of wildlife and environmental education with her to APR, thanks in part to degrees in Aquaculture (MS) and Biology (BS) and work as an interpretive ranger intern. She can’t wait to try fly fishing on the Missouri River this summer as part of a visit to the Reserve, and both Rachel and her husband Shawn enjoy hiking, snorkeling and birdwatching.

Thank you for your continued support and enabling us to attract and hire new members of the APR team. We are enthusiastic about the future of the Reserve and are grateful to be in a position to not only continue work toward our mission but also to contribute to local economies through employment opportunities.

Eric Dinerstein (left) and fellow WWF scientist Robin Naidoo pose with a rare sagebrush species (Artemisia longifolia) on the C. M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge during a 2012 trip to American Prairie Reserve.

As a follow up to the review of The Kingdom of Rarities in our December 2012 Newsletter, APR President Sean Gerrity interviewed author and WWF Lead Scientist Eric Dinerstein about rarity on the plains. From black-footed ferrets and cougars to bison and Mountain plovers, we learned that rare prairie species occur naturally and as a result of human influence. Despite the many challenges that these animals face, Eric, who also serves on American Prairie Reserve’s Scientific Advisory Council, is hopeful about the future of rare species both at home and overseas.

Sean Gerrity: The term “rare” can have many interpretations. What defines a rare species?

Eric Dinerstein: We normally think of a rare species as one with a narrow geographic range, having a low population density, or both. There are many species that once had wide ranges like black-footed ferrets or greater sage grouse, but are highly restricted today.  Then there are species that were once widespread and common, like bison, that have lost much of their natural abundance due to human activities.  Some species, in the APR, have always been rare, such as top predators like mountain lions.

Sean Gerrity: At APR, we often talk about native habitat, not just associated species, as being “rare” and endangered. Because grasslands were overlooked in formal protection efforts like the National Park Service, the vast majority of the nation’s prairies have been converted to commercial and residential uses. How does this play into plant and wildlife rarity? 

Eric Dinerstein: What makes the APR a rare habitat is that so much of it is unplowed prairie.  About 15 years ago, before the dream of the APR emerged, my colleagues and I in the WWF Science program looked for the largest tracts of untilled land as a prime criterion for considering conservation priority and sites suitable for large-scale restoration.  The current location of the APR was part of the bulls-eye. So much of the original prairie has suffered from sod-busting that you can see why the National Park Service had little to choose from.  So the APR conserves a rare habitat indeed, even if it lacks formal designation as a reserve.

Sean Gerrity: Obviously some animals were not always rare like they are today. The point you make in the book about rhinos being “ecosystem engineers” that are functionally extinct could easily apply to bison. For the prairie, what has the removal of bison meant for the ecosystem as a whole? 

Eric Dinerstein: Wherever we had giant browsing and grazing mammals, they exerted strong effects on the physical structure and composition of the habitats they occupy.  As I show in my book, this natural phenomenon is clear to see even when such populations are at low densities—far below what that ecosystem can support.  So imagine the effects vast herds of bison must have had on the APR and surrounding areas back when bison roamed widely and in great numbers.  I’ll bet the prairie looked much different today if you looked close up: more wallows, more bare spots, unevenly grazed areas, mineral-rich soils where bison carcasses may have accumulated.  And of course the large numbers of bison would have attracted some formidable predators and large numbers of scavengers.  It was a different world, but if we can picture it, maybe we can recreate it, at least in part.

Sean Gerrity: As you know, the American Prairie Reserve region is also home to hundreds of species of grassland birds, including more rare species like the Mountain plover and Sprague’s pipit. How can there be rarity in the midst of such abundance? 

Eric Dinerstein: You have posed one of the fundamental questions of community ecology—the science of how species interact in nature.  This pattern is even more pronounced in the tropical rainforest where you have a few very common species in an area and then a long list of singletons.   The commonness of rarity is a simple fact of nature.  So knowing this is the case globally, the APR needs to do its bit to conserve the rarities found there or that really prefer some of the micro-habitats the reserve offers—like close-cropped grassland for breeding mountain plovers, unmowed, dead grass layers for breeding Sprague’s pipit, and lots of occupied prairie dog towns for black-footed ferrets.

Sean Gerrity: A common theme woven throughout the book is the importance of scale when it comes to protected areas. From jaguars in the Amazon to the maned wolf of the Cerrado, we must be creative in how we put together enough habitat for these animals to roam and for natural processes to take place. What role does/can American Prairie Reserve play – especially looking at animals like cougars and pronghorn? 

Eric Dinerstein: We call these most magnificent creatures area-dependent or area-sensitive species, just a biologist’s way of saying you need whopping big areas if you want to maintain healthy populations over the long term.  Cougars need a lot of prey to breed effectively, so you need a lot of large prey and therefore a lot of land.  And you are correct; this is the same wildlife management issue in the APR as in the rest of the world where there are large mammals.  So some of the strategies invented and tested on the APR could help our conservation work elsewhere.

Sean Gerrity: Lastly, despite focusing on a topic that many would find disheartening, you seem optimistic about the future of many of the world’s rarities, like the return of tigers to Cambodia’s eastern plains. After all that you’ve seen, what gives you hope?

Eric Dinerstein: The sheer resilience of nature.  It never ceases to amaze me how fast wildlife and habitats recover when we take our foot off the neck of nature.  Also, in all my travels in poor countries, I have never once heard anyone say, “I would like to live next to a degraded environment.”  We all love nature, or most of us do, we just quibble about how much and where it should be restored. I am certain that we will be astonished how so many iconic places in the world will improve if we set our minds to better protecting the species and habitats in that region.

 This interview also appears on National Geographic News Watch, where American Prairie Reserve is a regular contributor. 

While you’re there, listen to clips on other feathered inhabitants of the prairie: Northern Goshawk, Montana Grassland Birds, Shorebirds – Not on the Shore, Tracking Burrowing Owls, and Sage-Grouse Lek and Grasslands.

Missouri River Breaks Region – Photo by Gib Myers

National Geographic Traveler recently highlighted north-central Montana by naming the Missouri River Breaks region one of the top 20 Best Trips for 2013.

The Breaks are perhaps most famous for their ties to the Lewis & Clark expedition, which made its way up the Missouri River in the early 1800s. The region continues to offer modern day adventurers a unique journey and striking landscapes, whether by canoe, on foot or driving safari.

Just north of the river is where the area’s steep cliffs and timbered hills transition into grassland, home to American Prairie Reserve and our growing herd of bison. Like a glimpse into the past, the Reserve is working to create a seamless landscape with a full-complement of wildlife and ecosystem processes, similar to what Lewis and Clark would might have seen on their travels. One day, we hope that visitors to this historic region of the nation will be able to experience nature on a grand scale – from the river to the rolling plains.

In the meantime, the Breaks and the Reserve are free and open to the public. Grab a tent, saddle up your horses or pack your life jackets – we’d love to see you! If you’d like to join a guided trip, check out current offerings in the Visit section of the website. There’s something for everyone, from birders, paddlers and history buffs to those looking for a volunteer vacation.

Paddling the Missouri River Breaks en route to American Prairie Reserve

November/December 2012

A Message from the President

Sean Gerrity

Supporters like you fueled tremendous growth in 2012, setting an exciting precedent for what we can accomplish in the year ahead. Thanks to your contributions, we acquired our largest property to date, grew the bison herd by more than 110 animals, installed our first interpretive signs, and connected the public to the prairie through exciting educational programs and volunteer opportunities. As we look ahead to 2013, I’m filled with anticipation at the many opportunities to build on this year’s growth. Next year, we’ll expand the area of the Reserve that the bison are able to roam by nearly 10,000 acres and take down approximately 30 miles of fence that impedes wildlife movement. With several additional properties available for purchase, we can potentially add tens of thousands of acres to the Reserve with your help. I hope you’ll consider being a part of this conservation legacy by making an annual gift this winter.

American Prairie Reserve Welcomes Tim Kelly to Its Board

Photo by Susan Kelly

American Prairie Reserve (APR) is pleased to welcome Tim Kelly, Former President of the National Geographic Society, to its Board of Directors. Kelly was appointed president of the National Geographic Society in January 2011 and has also served as president and CEO of National Geographic’s Global Media group, president and CEO of Ventures, and president of National Geographic Television. In 1997, Kelly conceived and launched the National Geographic Channel, later developing National Geographic WILD, a sister station devoted to nature and wildlife. Kelly also serves on the Board of Johannesburg-based Great Plains Conservation Trust, which manages more than 1 million acres of iconic African wilderness and operates safari camps that support wildlife habitat and the local people. No stranger to the prairie, Kelly has made several visits to the Reserve, falling in love with our vision of an American Serengeti open to the public’s enjoyment. Please join us in welcoming Tim to our Board.

Your Donations at Work: October Volunteer Safari

Photo by Siri Eliasen/APR

Your support helped us host nine volunteers on American Prairie Reserve in October, who worked over a three-day period to remove seven and a half miles of fence from Reserve lands. Fence removal plays a key role in APR’s overall restoration efforts by opening the landscape to animal movement and visitor access. While enjoying the sights and sounds of fall on the prairie, the volunteers opened a 1,000-acre area of the Reserve to wildlife movement, connecting the previously fenced parcel with 9,000 acres of already open habitat to create a 10,000-acre area that can now be freely navigated.

Science Update: Restoring Fire to the Ecosystem

This fall, we conducted our first controlled burn on American Prairie Reserve, restoring fire’s crucial role to a small portion of the ecosystem. Fire is a natural process by which dead vegetation is removed, nutrients are released into the soil and new growth is created. Through controlled burns, we are able to safely restore this process to the landscape and study its effects. A video shows the burn in action:

APR Named One of Top 10 Ecotourism Sites in the Great Plains

Photo by Dave Shumway

American Prairie Reserve has been named one of the Top 10 Ecotourism Sites in the Great Plains in a recent survey conducted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln’s, Center for Great Plains Studies. The Reserve joins several notable locations on the Center’s Top 50 Ecotourism Sites Map, such as Badlands National Park, and is one of ten featured sites highlighted in a special section of the map.

What We’re Reading Now…

The Kingdom of Rarities, by Eric Dinerstein

In The Kingdom of Rarities, American Prairie Reserve National Council member Dr. Eric Dinerstein explores the concept of natural “rarity,” raising important questions about what causes rarity in nature and how biodiversity around the world can be protected during times of large-scale ecological change. In his pursuit of some of the rarest species on Earth, Dinerstein takes the reader on a whirlwind journey to remote locations including New Guinea, the Amazon and the Himalayas. Calling attention to threats to global biodiversity, such as climate change and habitat fragmentation, Dinerstein emphasizes conservation strategies that can be employed to protect both common and rare species throughout the world. To learn more about this topic, and how it relates to our conservation efforts, look for an interview in our next newsletter featuring Dr. Dinerstein and APR President Sean Gerrity discussing rarity on American Prairie Reserve.

By the Numbers: October’s Volunteer Safari

Volunteers on October’s safari worked diligently to open habitat to animals and visitors alike. Here are some interesting statistics about their work:

Photo by Diane Hargreaves

158,400    Feet of barbed wire removed
11,487      Total miles volunteers traveled to reach APR
2,200        Number of fence posts pulled
1,000        Acres of habitat opened
176           Pounds of fence staples removed

A tasty tribute to the 4 Places – each flag marks one of the world’s temperate grassland regions where large-scale conservation is possible. Photo and cake: Katy Teson/APR

• Current levels of protection
• Current levels of disturbance
• Remaining area in a relatively natural state
• Potential for connectivity
• Current ecological condition
• Potential for restoration
• Numbers of extirpations or extinctions
• Potential for reintroductions
• Prospects for high levels of protection.

Based on the assessment, scientists identified that the greatest potential for grasslands conservation on a landscape-scale can only be found in four places around the world. According to the report:

“It is in these four grassland landscapes where the potential still exists to protect or restore large, ecologically viable grasslands, and with the required restoration and reintroduction efforts. Moreover, with this habitat protected, it may still be possible to reestablish a semblance of their natural wildlife populations and predator-prey relationships.”

In honor of Geography Awareness Week, here are each of the four places. Click each region to be taken to more information about these unique and treasured ecosystems. We also decided to celebrate the “4 Places” concept with a tribute in frosting! The cake above was made by one of our staff, and each flag marks one of the four places listed below (Patagonia is out of sight in the photo but was not forgotten).

1. North America’s mixed and short grass prairie – Home of American Prairie Reserve!
2. Plains of eastern Mongolia
3. Kazakh steppe
   
4. Patagonian steppe

The 4 Places. Image/content courtesy of WWF.

]]> http://www.americanprairie.org/news/where-in-the-world-four-places-for-big-grassland-conservation/feed/ 0 http://www.americanprairie.org/news/exploring-historic-wildlife-populations/ http://www.americanprairie.org/news/exploring-historic-wildlife-populations/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:43:07 +0000 American Prairie Reserve http://www.americanprairie.org/?p=3451 Continue reading →]]>

Over the course of ten weeks, American Prairie Reserve intern Michelle Berry dug deep into the natural history of the Northern Plains to research historic animal populations. Funded by the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Michelle utilized written accounts from the region’s inhabitants, artists and explorers as well as books, academic articles and interviews with biologists and other experts to piece together a picture of what the Reserve region might have looked like long ago. Michelle, a graduate student in Environmental Studies at Stanford, explains the goal of the project in the first of four blog posts for National Geographic’s News Watch site:

For any wildlife restoration project, it is necessary to understand what species abundance and distribution looked like historically. This provides us with information about how the ecological community once interacted and establishes a baseline for what the ecosystem could support. The task is surprisingly difficult for the mixed-grass prairie in northeastern Montana: many of the species disappeared in the span of two or three decades, and records of their populations prior to the extirpation are very limited.

Throughout her internship, and as described in her News Watch blog posts, Michelle encountered many obstacles related to working with historic documents and primary sources like trip journals. Inaccurate descriptions, personal biases and even creative spelling meant that information had to be carefully interpreted. Questions about human influence on the prairie ecosystem unearthed interesting debates about what is “natural” and how conservationists should approach restoration projects.

Michelle has been working hard to consolidate her findings, and we look forward to growing the project and sharing this fascinating research in more detail. Overall, the experience has proven to be rewarding for both APR and Michelle, as seen in her article on the Bill Lane Center website:

At Stanford I take classes in ecology theory and population dynamics, but this internship was truly an invaluable experience in real-life conservation. I got to experience the science, the politics, the labor, and the organizational work, which are all involved in a project of this size. The tasks and obstacles are often daunting, but this internship has renewed my passion for wildlife conservation and I’m excited to return to Stanford with this broader outlook on my field of study.

Read all of Michelle’s blog posts on National Geographic:

• Should Conservation Look Back? Examining Historic Wildlife Populations of America’s Serengeti
• Top Predator on the Plains: Wolf, Bear or Human?
• Why Don’t You Call it Scat, Meriwether?
• Montana’s Glaciated Plains: Thinking Big Across Time and Space