The NRCS in Colorado continues its long-standing support of the black-footed ferret recovery efforts. Most recently, the Agency alongside situated at designated release sites to release black-footed ferrets (BFF) in southeastern Colorado’s Prowers County. The NRCS provided financial assistance thru its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to eligible landowners for this FY-22 effort.
QUOTE FROM PATTY about the importance of this initiative to wildlife habitat.
NRCS’s support of the BFF efforts involves working directly with landowners on a voluntary basis, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS), Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The NRCS provides financial incentives to private landowners to install conservation measures in prairie habitats and livestock grazing areas that support several wildlife species associated with prairie dog colonies.
“The black-footed ferret is the most endangered mammal in North America because it was twice thought to be extinct,” Knupp goes on to say. “Several years ago, USDA authorized BFF recovery efforts on a voluntary basis in12 states including Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming because prairie dogs and their habitat are the primary and preferred diet and location of the ferret, and those states have a high populations of prairie dog colonies.”
The NRCS works with numerous conservation and wildlife partner in Colorado to support the BFF recovery effort. The Agency started its support in 2014, providing financial and technical assistance to implement prescribed grazing plans as well as upland wildlife management/monitoring and to date has helped secure BFF release sites, releasing nearly (GIVE AN APPROXIMATION BASED ON TYPICAL NUMBER RELEASED) ferrets along the northern and southeastern portion of the state. To date, over $1.1 million have been obligated through EQIP contracts for the BFF special effort on over 17,500 acres with more opportunities slated for FY-23.
Original source can be found here.
