Spring 2018

Newsletter Archive

Hanging out in South Dakota with Grassland Nerds!

Turns out grasslands are really important - did you know the Northern Great Plains (spanning 5 US states and 2 Canadian provinces) supports many threatened species such as Greater sage grouse, swift fox, mountain plover and burrowing owl. The Northern Great Plains is also home to pronghorn, the fastest land animal in North America, whom move extensively around the landscape to meet life requirements. A key conservation concern for pronghorn throughout the Northern Great Plains is highways fragmenting the landscape which can lead to direct morality and/or disruption of pronghorn movement.

Miistakis was honoured to attend Northern Great Plains Partnership Meeting with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies in South Dakota last February. The meeting pulled together organizations working in the Northern Great Plains for inspiring discussion on conservation of the Northern Great Plains. Miistakis Institute shared stories from Pronghorn Xing (www.pronghornxing.org), a citizen science program developed to identify crossing locations across highways in Alberta and Saskatchewan and to increase public engagement in pronghorn science and conservation.