LEARN: RESOURCES & TOOLKITS
Recent Updates
The Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative (CGRI) and its myriad of partners constantly produce and publish informative resources, providing the foundation for Biome-wide collaboration and conservation. Here are a few highlights with many more below:
Central Grasslands Assessment Map 3.0 with Further Explanation and Map data (CGR DataShare V2).
Site Search
This Month’s Feature: Canada in Focus
The State of Canada’s Birds: Report, Species accounts, and Blog post with key messages
With more than 200 organizations across seven sectors representing Mexico, Canada, the U.S., and Indigenous/First Nations Communities, the Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative is a massive, diverse effort. As we continue to identify shared priorities, we are actively compiling resources to support collaborative communication, shared policy concerns, research agendas, and best practices for conservation delivery.
SHARED COMMUNICATION COLLATERAL
THE ROADSHOW
An abbreviated brochure for the Grasslands and You campaign
Additional presentation collateral (forthcoming)
NARRATIVE ROADMAP
The Full Roadmap: Developed from ‘20-’22, the Roadmap provides a collaborative pathway forward.
The Executive Summary: Abbreviated version of the Roadmap.
Appendices: Further explanations.
UPDATES AND PRESS
Press Releases about the most recent endeavors of the CGRI
UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIPS
LARGE SCALE COLLABORATIONS AND SUPPORT FOR CGRI
From resources generated in Canada in support of the Roadmap to AFWA and CEC resolutions to NFWF’S work to the Great Plains Conservation Network and the Joint Ventures important regional approach, this toolkit looks at the larger context of the Roadmap.
PARTNERING WITH INDIGENOUS /FIRST NATIONS
Respect and honor diverse voices and rights when designing priorities, placing emphasis on listening more, giving back, and supporting. This toolkit includes a few resources, but even more can be discovered from the Indigenous Kinship Circle (link featured in the Toolkit).
BEST PRACTICES OF COLLABORATION
Collaboration is at the heart of the Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative … this toolkit links to a plethora of resources on effective collaborative conservation and additional explanation about CGRI’s approach to complex collaboration.
FROM CATTLE TO BISON: COALITIONS AROUND THE BIOME
Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance
National Grazing Lands Coalition
CURRICULUM & SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS
Curriculum that connects youth to the grasslands ecosystem that exists outside their back door. While raising literacy and awareness, the program also engages them in developing solutions to challenges that exist within the grasslands.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENTS
There are a myriad of assessments and GIS tools that look at the Central Grasslands in different ways. This toolkit provides a glimpse at several that have gone into the Roadmap collaboration, and can help support on-the-ground decisions like the Rangeland Analysis Platform.
An education campaign complete with illustrations, social media files and starting points for sharing the importance of Grasslands to a wide array of audiences.
POLICY & FUNDING RESOURCES
Collaborative letters written by the Policy Committee to leaders at U.S. Federal Agencies to learning how to join the Policy Committee and inform our Policy Agenda, to considering the Farm Bill, Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA), and North America’s Grasslands Conservation Act (NAGCA).
Elevating gaps in funding, needed resources, and ideal investments for funders, this guidance document emerged from the Roadmap process and the Summits. It provides clarity for funders about where to prioritize their collective support. Current and new funders to the CGRI should start here!
About 75% of Canada’s native prairie is already lost. Many of the grasslands are privately owned and not part of the protected areas network. These working landscapes - managed by farmers and ranchers to produce food - play a key role in grassland conservation: keeping ranchers ranching effectively.
The Roadmap elevates the need to provide a stable funding framework using a variety of tools, including those that address financial inequities and injustices, and offer voluntary programs and financial incentives designed to foster stewardship and diverse participation in conservation.
CONSERVATION DELIVERY TOOLKITS
CGRI is working collaboratively to help change the narrative about the power of grasslands to store carbon and the role that grazers and diverse energy siting play to make this ecosystem effective. The grasslands is diverse and complex Biome.
Ensuring that intact grasslands remain “green-side up” is a key objective of the CGRI. While this includes keeping ranchers ranching, it also means addressing woody species. These resources provides insight on current work in this area.
Fire is a tool to manage the lands and ecosystems we care for, resist the spread of invasive species, provide healthy habitats for wildlife, and support the natural cycle of nutrients that soils need to stay healthy. Learn more here.
Sustainable grazing and effective working lands are paramount to the Central Grasslands. These articles, publications, and projects showcase best practices of conservation ranching.
RESEARCH & MONITORING TOOLKITS
A forever growing body of research on grassland ecosystems and the diverse species within that ecosystem. This toolkit can help provide substance for a literature review and can help determine a research agenda, gaps in research, and new best practices to consider.
SOIL HEALTH AND OLD GROWTH GRASSLANDS
Drought is inevitable, but there are things that land stewards can do to protect the health of their soil no matter the moisture level. The five steps are: armor the soil, minimize disturbance, enhance diversity, incorporate living roots and introduce livestock. Read more in this toolkit focused on soil health.
CGRI BIRD FORUM AND SPECIES LIST
A multi-sector forum to determine a list of avian species that would help the Roadmap track the impact of conservation across the biome, and represent the diverse communities involved in this work.
Learn how this work has evolved by the momentum from the Central Grassland Bird Working Group.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENTS
There are a myriad of assessments and GIS tools that look at the Central Grasslands in different ways. This toolkit provides a glimpse at several that have gone into the Roadmap collaboration, including our regularly updated biome-scale Assessment Map and many more critically important resources.