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At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we love it when we can collaborate to conserve, protect and enhance habitat to benefit wildlife and people. One such collaboration is occurring in the rural community of Neosho, Missouri.
In the Neosho area, historic mining has injured migratory bird populations on the land and endangered mussel species in the water. Our agency restores damaged habitats using funds secured through settlements with companies that have polluted the environment. In 2020, this program, called Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration, funded several proposals to begin restoration of the Shoal Creek watershed and the idea to adopt wildlife-friendly practices on the Neosho High School Demonstration Farm was born.
The Neosho High School Demonstration farm is located on land owned by the Neosho National Fish hatchery. The hatchery depends on this land to ensure local springs continue to supply clean water for the hatchery鈥檚 fish production. The200-acre farm is managed by the school鈥檚 Future Farmers of American program. Through hands-on farm experience, the students learn about farm management and grazing cattle. The land was historically planted to fescue and cattle had open access to the entire pasture, including the stream. The small stream running through the farm鈥檚 pasture runs into a tributary to Shoal Creek, in exactly the area where the endangered Neosho mucket mussel is most concentrated. Our agency has funds through the Natural Resource Damage Assessment program to work with landowners to protect the Neosho mucket and promote other wildlife-friendly practices on farms. Landowners work with biologists from our Partners for Fish and Wildlife program to improve wildlife habitat on their land. Our biologists partnered with the high school to demonstrate to the students and the community how to make the high school farm wildlife-friendly.
鈥淲ildlife friendly鈥� can look different in different parts of the country, depending on the landscape. In southwest Missouri, we often help landowners enroll in federal programs that fund the conversion of exotic fescue fields to stands of native tallgrass prairie grasses and wildflowers. While fescue can provide adequate forage for cows, it does not provide good habitat for wildlife. Tallgrass prairie supported herds of bison long before European colonists introduced fescue to the Midwest.
Today, native prairies can provide nutritious forage for the modern farm. Producers benefit from using native forages because it promotes increased weight gain among livestock during late spring and throughout summer. Cost-share programs provide funding to fence cattle out of streams, reducing the nutrients going into the water and preventing the erosion of streambanks due to trampling by cattle. For the landowner, fencing increases the value of the land and allows for easier management of their cattle.
We decided that this project would have components of both restoration and education. Students would not only have hands-on learning experience planting trees and calibrating seed drills, but they would also be able to watch the prairie grow up from the fescue pasture. A plan was written that had several objectives to help achieve the goal of more wildlife diversity on the school farm area:
We reached an agreement with school officials to replace their fescue with a native assemblage of prairie grasses and wildflowers that are both nutritious for livestock and provide a continuous bloom of flowers for pollinators.
We hired local contractors to install fence to restrict cattle from entering the creek and paid 75% of the cost. Since the cows were now isolated from their water source, we provided cost share for piping county water to several stock tanks in the pastures.
The school farm divides two large, forested conservation areas. The students worked with agency staff to plant a wildlife corridor wildlife corridor
To maintain healthy species populations and ecosystems, fish and wildlife need the freedom to move and migrate. As habitats and migration routes are affected by climate change and fragmented by roads, fences, energy development and other man-made barriers, wildlife struggle to reach necessary areas to feed, breed and find shelter. A wildlife corridor is a piece of undeveloped land connecting two habitats so wildlife can move safely between them.
Learn more about wildlife corridor to connect the two forests. This corridor allows small animals, like tree frogs, to move between the two conservation areas. We selected a variety of oaks, hickories and native fruit trees that will provide food and shelter to a variety of wildlife species.
Our education mission here was two-fold. First, this area showcases the cost-share programs that are available to local landowners in a visible, public space. Second, the students that helped create wildlife habitat on this demonstration farm will one day take their parents鈥� place on the family farm and perhaps adopt these practices on their own land. This story is just one example of how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brings together different parts of our agency to share our mission with our neighbors. When we use our collective ingenuity, we improve the quality of life for both wildlife and people.
Learn more about how landowners work with the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
