Partnerscapes and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Partners Program
Host Virtual Great Plains Partnership Forum
The Partnerscapes Blog by Steve Jester
The Great Plains Partnership Forum scheduled for February in Manhattan, Kansas was caught in a Polar Vortex, and we were unable to gather in person as extreme cold and snow settled into the Great Plains from the Dakotas to Texas. However, the multi-organizational planning team did a quick pivot and held a 3-hour Zoom that was attended by almost 50 landowners and voluntary conservation practitioners in the Great Plains.
Attendees heard first from landowners and land managers in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Montana to glean their perspectives on building and maintaining effective working relationships and partnerships with landowners. The second panel featured two practitioners and a landowner from South Dakota to share how landowners and all types of voluntary conservation agencies and organizations are pulling together in that state to continue to get good things done on the land. The final panel highlighted the work of two landowner-led organizations in Kansas, the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance and Kansas Grazing Land Conservation Initiative.
The session concluded with a series of breakout sessions addressing how we can all continue to participate in partnerships at the intersection of conservation and ranching, addressing current challenges and what flexibilities each of the participants has to keep good things going.
A report is being prepared with more details, and we will share that in a future newsletter. A big thanks to the multi-perspective, multi-organizational planning team and to all that were able to participate!
