Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge Land Acquisition - Phase VII
The acquisition work for this phase has been completed. The goal for this phase was the protection of 730 acres, 390 in fee title and 340 in conservation easements. Over the life of the grant we protected 910 acres (124% of the goal), 482 acres in fee title and 428 acres in conservation easements. The goal for native prairie acres for this phase was 410 acres. We protected a total of 456 native prairie acres (111% of the goal): 220 native prairie acres in fee title and 256 native prairie acres in easements.
The Council?s 25-Year Framework identifies protecting Minnesota?s remaining native prairies as a critical priority. The Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan (Prairie Plan) describes the importance of preserving the cores/corridors/complexes in areas with the greatest opportunities for long-term conservation of these prairies. The Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge (NTP NWR) Land Acquisition program shares these goals. This program is a cooperative, multi-year effort of The Nature Conservancy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to preserve and protect our remaining prairies and the surrounding habitat that buffers them. With Outdoor Heritage Fund support, this partnership is working together to advance these goals.
This program also includes a relatively small restoration/enhancement component of the acres acquired. While the prioritization criteria favor parcels that are in good condition, because of the nature of parcel ownership some properties included small areas of converted or degraded lands needing grassland or wetland restoration/enhancement. This work is completed only on parcels acquired with this funding, as needed to get these properties into a sustainable condition for inclusion into the NTP NWR and future management. These acres are not reported as a separate outcome in the Output Tables in order to avoid any possible double-counting.
Restoration/enhancement activity with this round of funding included grassland site preparation/seeding or interseeding/mowing, tree and/or dense vegetation removal and invasive species control on two parcels.
$2,754,000 the second year is to the commissioner of natural resources for an agreement with The Nature Conservancy in cooperation with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire land in fee or permanent conservation easements and restore lands within the Northern Tallgrass Prairie Habitat Preservation Area in western Minnesota for addition to the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge. Subject to evaluation criteria in Minnesota Rules, part 6136.0900, priority must be given to acquisition of lands that are eligible for the native prairie bank under Minnesota Statutes, section 84.96, or lands adjacent to protected native prairie. A list of proposed land acquisitions must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan and must be consistent with the priorities in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan.
This program?s top criterion for selecting projects is the presence of remnant native prairie. As noted above, 486 acres of remnant native prairie were permanently protected. Another important goal is protecting lands in existing complexes of habitat and protected lands were in areas identified as a Prairie Core or Corridor in the MN Prairie Plan. We also target lands with high-quality habitat and the rare species this habitat supports. Data from the Minnesota Biological Survey identified nearly 2/3 of the protected acres as having significant biodiversity. These lands support a wide range of prairie species of concern and the vegetative communities that support them, including wet, mesic, and dry hill prairies, wet seepage prairies, calcareous fens, and migratory stopover habitats for water birds. Species benefited by the protected parcels include Blanding's turtles, the creek heelsplitter mussel, nesting upland sandpipers, small white lady?s slipper, and many others. Another highlight in this phase was the protection of multiple lengths of stream that are designated critical habitat for the federally endangered Topeka shiner.
PF-USFWS, TNC and USFWS