Podcast: The New Great Plains Grasslands Initiative with NRCS

Pheasants Forever’s On the Wing podcast digs into the NRCS’ Great Plains Grassland Initiatives with Tim Griffiths, Western Working Lands for Wildlife’s regional coordinator, Dean Krehbiel, state resources conservationist with Kansas NRCS, and Chris McLeland, PF’s Midwest director of conservation delivery.

Episode Title: The New Great Plains Grasslands Initiative with NRCS

Podcast: On the Wing

Producer: Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever

WLFW Experts: Tim Griffiths, Western Working Lands for Wildlife regional coordinator with the NRCS, Dean Krehbiel, state resources conservationist with Kansas NRCS, and Chris McLeland, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Midwest director of conservation delivery and cattle rancher.

Topic: The USDA-NRCS’ state-led Great Plains Grassland Initiatives

Air Date: 6/16/2021

Listen Time: 1:33:03

Episode Description: Have you heard of the Great Plains Grassland Initiatives? Are you a landowner, rancher, or producer in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, or Oklahoma? Do you know about the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Working Lands for Wildlife efforts?

Working Lands for Wildlife is the NRCS’ premier approach for conserving America’s working lands to benefit people, wildlife, and rural communities. This innovative approach has expanded into America’s Great Plains to restore and protect the critical grasslands there.

In this podcast, longtime partner of Working Lands for Wildlife, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, sits down with two leaders in the NRCS and Working Lands for Wildlife to learn more about how the NRCS is expanding its work in the Great Plains.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Tim Griffiths, NRCS’s western regional coordinator; Dean Krehbiel, NRCS’s state resources conservationist for Kansas; and Chris McLeland, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s Midwest director of conservation delivery for this conversation about landscape-level grasslands conservation.

We learn that Tim Griffiths is as enthusiastic and knowledgeable conservationist as there is out there in the United States. He’s leading this innovative approach to restoring grasslands in collaboration with America’s farmers and ranchers across the Great Plains. We also hear Chris McLeland’s unique perspective throughout the conversation as a biologist for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever who also ranches cattle for beef. And finally, we hear from Dean Krehbiel who offers insights into Kansas’ thought process and progress that led it to become the first state in the Great Plains to kick off the Great Plains Grassland Initiative.

Learn More:

• NRCS-Kansas Great Plains Grassland Initiative
• NRCS-Nebraska Great Plains Grassland Initiative
• Map of Oklahoma Great Plains Grassland Initiative program areas
• Working Lands for Wildlife’s Framework for Conservation Action in the Great Plains Grasslands Biome