Educational Resources

Rangeland ecologists are now able to track woody encroachment and the associated forage loss by county, state, and national scales as a result of recent innovations in rangeland monitoring.

The presentation slides show lessons learned from conducting a chaining management practice to remove skeleton trees post burn.

A new guide, produced through a partnership between public university extension programs in the Great Plains, the USDA-NRCS’s Working Lands for Wildlife, the USDA-NRCS’s Central National Technology Support Center, and various other conservation partners, provides the first-ever framework for addressing woody encroachment, now recognized as one of the top two drivers of grassland loss in the Great Plains.

This pocket guide provides an improved planning process to design grassland ecosystems that are less vulnerable to the threat of woody encroachment.

In 2020, a multi-state, areawide planning initiative produced the first biome-scale framework for grassland wildlife conservation on the region’s sustainable working rangelands. This initiative features an action-based framework for 2021-2025 focused on addressing the two most severe and large-scale threats to the Great Plains biome: woodland expansion and land-use conversion.

This app provides a powerful perspective and context for rangeland monitoring. It makes it easy to develop new strategies that improve rangeland productivity and evaluate current or past land management practices.

In 2023, PLJV conducted a literature review on landowner perceptions regarding invasive woody plant management. The goal of this review was to identify the primary motivations, barriers, and needs for conducting management to support future application of social science insights into conservation delivery, communication, and outreach

In 2023, PLJV conducted interviews and focus groups in Kansas and Oklahoma on landowner perceptions regarding invasive woody plant management. This report examines various motivations, barriers, and future needs of landowners and land managers regarding invasive woody plant management decision-making. With this knowledge, conservation practitioners can better support these individuals in their ongoing efforts to manage invasive species.

IPM consists of a combination of strategies to Prevent, Avoid, Monitor, and Suppress (PAMS) woody pests in grasslands.

A new study from University of Nebraska-Lincoln ecologist and Working Lands for Wildlife partner, Dirac Twidwell, synthesized decades of research on the growing impact of invading conifers.