Working Lands for Wildlife is the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's premier approach for conserving America's working lands to benefit people, wildlife, and rural communities.
When we work together through win-win voluntary conservation, both working lands and wildlife benefit. Photo: Tim Griffiths.
a shared vision
We keep working lands intact, productive, and profitable
Private agricultural lands supply our nation's food and fiber. They also provide vital habitat for wildlife to roam, support rural communities, and safeguard our water and soils.
WLFW offers a new paradigm for conserving working landscapes through voluntary cooperation and incentives. This approach is tailor-made to meet the needs of focal species and individual landowners in target landscapes.
Participating producers
Acres conserved
States where WLFW works
Frameworks for Conservation Action
WLFW's Frameworks for Conservation Action provide the common vision and coordination to address resource concerns and ecosystem threats across entire biomes, while maximizing local decision-making and flexibility in program delivery. The frameworks target the most severe and large-scale threats causing biome-level impacts.
The sagebrush biome is the largest single habitat type in North America
Healthy, resilient, and productive working rangelands are critical to vibrant communities, wildlife, and the Western way of life.
The grasslands of America's Great Plains provide food and fiber to the entire nation.
With more than 90% of the Great Plains in private ownership, partnering with landowners is essential.
From livestock to crops, America’s central and eastern grasslands and savannas are some of the country's most productive agricultural lands.
Partnering with landowners here to increase productivity while enhancing wildlife habitat is win-win conservation at its best.
“We were cutting more and more trees every year and we felt like we were losing. The NRCS and Working Lands for Wildlife have given us a way to make strategic wins, so that we can actually see progress and know that we are making a difference on the landscape.”
Chris Mushrush, Rancher and WLFW Participant
