The Nature Conservancy in South Dakota

The Grassland Monitoring Team wrapped up a beautiful week of surveying at Whitney Preserve! The team is monitoring plants around the region to understand how our management efforts are helping to improve grassland habitat quality. This week, the team enjoyed some beautiful sunsets and fascinating plants and insects thriving at Whitney Preserve!

📸 Maggie Anderson

In western South Dakota, people and nature rely on groundwater. These underground sources are like savings accounts for future water needs, helping supply water even amid drought. Plus, if streams are dry, these little wet pockets provide critical refuge areas for fish, frogs, turtles and some birds.

But changes in climate, land use and water use are depleting these pockets of water. To understand the impact of this depletion and how to manage groundwater resources, we need to know where these groundwater-dependent places are.

That’s why scientists from The Nature Conservancy and partners, in a first-of-its-kind study recently published in Nature, have attempted to map groundwater-dependent ecosystems at a global scale.

Learn more about managing groundwater dependent habitats in Western South Dakota in our newly published Stream Guide: https://nature.ly/46tpf4E

📸Layne Kennedy

Do you know what South Dakota’s state animal is?

Answer: Coyote!

In South Dakota, coyotes are most commonly found around the Missouri River and in the Black Hills. Fun fact: Coyotes mate for life and parent their young together!

📸 Rachel Stepien

Join us on July 31 for a walk through the pasture to learn about grassland biodiversity!

Do you wish you saw wild creatures on your long hikes? Do you wonder how some people always seem to spot cool things, while you’re lucky to catch a glimpse of a squirrel?

Wildlife watching is a skill. The good news is that it is a relatively easy one to master. It just requires an approach to the wild. With some practice, you’ll be surprised at what you see, wherever you go.

How To See More Wildlife Want to see a moose? Or a bear or other animals in the wild? Wildlife watching is a skill that can be learned with tips to get you started.

What’s your favorite summer nature activity? 🎣🏕🌞

Beavers have long been a vital part of South Dakota’s natural water systems. For centuries, their dams helped store water during drought and slow water down during big rains, reducing erosion.

But for several reasons, there aren’t as many beaver in western South Dakota today. So many landowners are installing structures on their streams that mimic beaver dams. These “beaver dam analogs” are helping ranchers restore their streams and improve the quality of their lands.

Ranchers Unite Behind Nature-Based Solutions for Unpredictable Rainfall Castle Rock ranchers are investing in unconventional grazing tactics and river stream health with support from TNC and partners.

Our Prairie Coteau crew has had lots of fun working to keep streams clear to prevent flooding this summer!

📸Regan Ware

Here is the full list of dates and locations for our Fire Effects Tour Series!

Please note the next on is tomorrow, July 11 at Palisades State Park. The meeting place will be at this address: 35463 485th Ave.

Get details for each tour at sdgrass.org.

Back in 2007, the Alabaugh Canyon Fire consumed most of the eastern section of Whitney Preserve. You can still see evidence of the fire at the preserve today. When hiking the public nature trail, look up at the walls of the canyon and you will see the remnants of the fire.

Today marks the anniversary of Alabaugh Canyon wildfire – July 07, 2007 - July 20, 2007, UN-incorporated Fall River County South Dakota

The fire started south west of Hot Springs South Dakota, near Cascade Springs, the fire burned more than 10,450 acres, thirty-three homes, numerous out buildings and other structures.

It claimed the life of civilian Dave Beeman, 46, and injured two Firefighters, and inspired the book “Cascade of Flames” by Mary Goulet, Mary passed away on July 8, 2020.

Photo courtesy of the Hot Springs Star

Join us in the field to see the results of our spring prescribed fire season!

On July 11, we’ll be at Palisades State Park looking at how fire enhanced the native plant community and helped control cedar tree encroachment.

On July 17, find us at the SDSU Oak Lake Field Station in Astoria to see how fire rejuvenated the native grassland.

On July 19, we’ll meet in Rockham, SD, to observe how fire affected pasture and a conservation reserve program site.

**Edited to say please note this change in the address for where to meet at Palisades: 35463 485th Ave

The field day will address the results of the spring prescribed fire. We will explore what lessons we learned, habitat responses to timing and conditions, ecological effects, and whether our objectives were met. We also welcome participant questions and concerns.

Grasslands are an underground forest of carbon. Their prolific roots grow deep into the soil the way trees grow high into the sky. But grasslands are one of the least protected ecosystems on the planet.

Here in South Dakota, grasslands are all around us! Protecting grasslands keeps that carbon in the ground and provides numerous other benefits to native plants, wildlife and water quality. If we protected only 10% of the remaining unprotected grasslands in the Dakotas, we could avoid 11.7 million tons of CO2e emissions over 20 years. This is the same as taking 2.5 million cars off the road for a year.

Can Grasslands, The Ecosystem Underdog, Play an Underground Role in Climate Solutions? What role can grasslands play in climate change solutions? The answer is in the roots.

We’re celebrating the 4th of July by appreciating Nature’s Fireworks! 🎇🌻

Our friends at Tanka Fund are helping Native American producers running bison operations with resources and support. “The buffalo to our people is our ancestor. If we take care of them, they take care of us.”

June - Our Amazing Grasslands - Tanka Fund USDA is an Equal Opportunity Provider, Employer and Lender."We can help provide a solution that changes things in a whole other direction for them in a good ...

Interested in learning about how cover crops and other conservation practices can make your land better? Head to the Renovo Rally in Brookings, SD on July 2 to see cover crops in action, learn about grazing strategies and hear how crop diversity can be practical and profitable.

Learn more and register:

Renovo Rally Plot Day Join us on July 2nd to tour the industry's first cover crop and forage plot, hear from expert speakers, take a tour of the Millborn and Renovo Seed warehouse, and have a great lunch.

🚨Hiring alert!🚨

We’re looking for a Southern Black Hills land steward to manage the day-to-day projects at and around Whitney Preserve in Hot Springs, SD including working with partners. This land steward will help with climate adaptation, Indigenous relationships and other conservation projects.

Learn more and apply: https://nature.ly/4b7dmSI

📸 Katelyn Weisbrod/TNC

Landowners who are planting buffers of grasses along streams are keeping pollutants and sediments out of our water. This keeps our water clean for communities downstream and provides big economic benefits for producers.

May 2024 - Our Amazing Grasslands - Water Management The symptoms of degraded water quality and flooding impacts are directly related to the past and ongoing loss of grasslands. Cleaning up runoff and minimizin...

June 17-23 is Pollinator Week, an annual celebration of the importance of bees, butterflies and the many other insects that keep our gardens abuzz with activity. And we’re hereby giving you permission to get a little lazy with your landscaping—to help the pollinators, of course!

Discover easy ways to give pollinators a wing up all year long.

https://nature.ly/3XqCAYQ

📸 Ed Zschiedrich, Danae Wolfe

Beaver dam analogs are human-made structures that resemble beaver dams, and they are becoming more and more popular among South Dakota ranchers. That’s because they help store water and provide productive grazing land for cattle ranchers, even during drought.

“There is tangible economic value we can tie to beavers on the landscape,” TNC’s Lori Brown told South Dakota Searchlight.

Read the story: https://nature.ly/45lujHT

📸 Joe Dickie

The South Dakota Grassland Coalition, which includes The Nature Conservancy, has come together to provide experiences for landowners to learn how to use prescribed fire on their lands.

By getting more safe, routine fire on South Dakota’s grasslands, we can help keep trees from encroaching on the landscape, reduce the spread of non-native grass species and create more habitat for wildlife.

April 2024 - Our Amazing Grasslands - Prescribed Burns Individuals may consider burning when facing issues like overgrowth of cedar trees impacting the landscape, reducing wildlife habitat, and limiting the carry...

Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! We’re celebrating the strength that diversity brings to the mission of protecting the lands and waters on which ALL life depends.

The Nature Conservancy Celebrates International Pride Day and Pride Month TNC is making space for and learning from our LGBTQ+ conservation allies this month and every month.

Alexandria, one of our stewardship staff members has been hard at work hand-pulling wild parsnip at Plover Prairie.

Wild parsnip sap is toxic, especially when exposed to ultraviolet radiation. If the sap touches your skin and is then exposed to the sun, you may develop severe blisters.

Keep an eye out for wild parsnip while hiking through the prairie this summer! The plant has yellow flowers, grows 3 to 6 feet tall and has a celery-looking stem.

The South Dakota Grassland Coalition’s next grazing school is coming up on June 11-13 in Wall, SD.

This 3-day intensive program will equip you with new grazing management techniques that will save you time and money, increase the conservation value of the land and give you hands-on experience.

Learn more below!

Grazing School - South Dakota Grassland Coalition The Grazing School is designed for producers and anyone with an interest in learning how to best manage grasslands to benefit livestock.

The Endangered Species Act went into effect over 50 years ago! We looked at 50 species in each state that help show how successful these protections have been for plants and animals that were once under threat of extinction.

50 Species, 50 States: 50 Years of Action for Nature In its first 50 years, the U.S. Endangered Species Act has played a major role in conserving rare plants and animals in every state. Take a moment to celebrate its success where you live.

Mountain bluebird chicks have hatched at Whitney Preserve!

This nest is set up in one of the nest boxes we have on the preserve. Mountain bluebirds are often the first to set up in these boxes, which are a safe haven from predators and bad weather.

Fun fact, according to All About Birds, a female mountain bluebird will choose a mate solely on the location and quality of the of nesting site he chooses!

📸 Marcus Heerdt

“As we wrote and recorded the song, our goal was to touch the hearts of those who heard it, so they can feel the love we feel and be motivated to be part of restoring and protecting the health of our beloved grasslands.” -- Maygen Lacey

Minneapolis-based band Maygen & The Birdwatcher has a new music video for their new original song “Where Good Things Grow,” celebrating North America’s grassland ecosystems.

In partnership with the South Dakota Grassland Coalition, the music video is part of a larger campaign to bring awareness to ways we can protect grasslands like those that cover much of our state.

Where Good Things Grow--South Dakota Grasslands This is "Where Good Things Grow--South Dakota Grasslands" by Joe Dickie on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.