North Dakota Meadowlark Initiative RCPP Grant Selected

After engaging and enlisting partners and stakeholders last spring and summer, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department initiated the Meadowlark Initiative, a new statewide strategy to combine the efforts of conservation, agriculture and industry partners to enhance, restore and sustain native grasslands in North Dakota.

Last November, the Game and Fish Department and 13 contributing partners submitted a USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant proposal (MI-RCPP), seeking to leverage over $12 million partner contributions with $10 million of USDA-NRCS funding to kick-start collaborative work toward goals and objectives, encompassed in the Meadowlark Initiative.

In late April, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service announced that North Dakota’s Meadowlark Initiative RCPP was selected as one of 85 successful projects nationwide.

Together the collaborative effort focuses on two goals: 1) improve, increase and connect wildlife habitat and 2) support the sustainability of new and existing livestock ranches by offering incentives and programs to promote holistic grazing with grass-based livestock operations.