Enhanced Public Land - Open Landscapes
This program enhanced 2,491 acres of open landscape habitat for $578,200 and brought $12,000 in leverage. We did this by mowing/shearing brush, removing trees and installing firebreaks on WMA's, State Forest, and County owned land in the Norther Forest Region.
Pheasants Forever sent out a Request for Proposal to area wildlife managers in the northern forest region, targeting those who have sharptails present on their managed lands. Eligible activities included prescribed fire (either by burning or installing firebreaks), mowing and shearing, tree removal, diversity seeding, and conservation grazing. We ranked projects based on the distance to the nearest lek and vulnerable lek, location of project within Open Landscape Core Area, project's ability to open uplands for nesting and brood rearing, and project size. Ranked projects were then selected until funds were exhausted. PF staff worked with partners to develop scopes of work and project maps. PF solicited bids to local area contractors using the PF procurement policy. Awarded contracts were monitored by PF and agency staff to ensure projects were completed per the scope of work within the project timeline.
$955,000 the first year is to the commissioner of natural resources for an agreement with Pheasants Forever, in cooperation with the Minnesota Sharp-Tailed Grouse Society, to enhance and restore early successional open landscape habitat on public lands. A list of proposed restoration and enhancements must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan.
This program enhances open landscape habitat for Sharp-tailed grouse, a species of greatest conservation need and a target species for this program. We targeted areas near leks, dancing grounds where courtship displays are performed, and the surrounding area where females nest. Although sharptails are the target species for this program, other SGCN, threatened or endangered species including bobolinks, loggerhead shrikes, short-eared owls, yellow rails, eastern meadowlarks, American bittern, northern harrier, golden-winged warblers, Henslow's sparrow, Le Conte's sparrow, Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow, and American woodcock benefit from this work.
Federal, Private, PF and MSGS