The Rainwater Basin

Joint Venture

Annual Report

October 1, 2012-September 30, 2013

Coordinator, Andy Bishop

Management Board Tim McCoy, Ph.D., Chair

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Peter Berthelsen

Pheasants Forever

Bob Bettger

Fillmore County Landowner

Steve Donovan

Ducks Unlimited

Ardell Epp

Hamilton County Landowner

Gloria Erickson

Phelps County Landowner

Ken Feather

Upper Big Blue Natural Res. District

Mace Hack, Ph. D.

The Nature Conservancy

Clint Riley

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Michael Onnen

NE Assn. of Natural Resources Districts

Larry Reynolds/Dave Raffety

Tri-Basin Natural Resources District

Steve Shaw

Little Blue Natural Resources District

Greg Reisdorff

Farm Service Agency

Mel Taylor

Fillmore County Landowner

Britt Weiser

Natural Resources Conservation Service Technical Committee

Jonas Davis, chair

Ducks Unlimited

Jeffrey S. Abegglen

U.S. Forest Service

James Dubovsky

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Kenny Dinan

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Ted LaGrange

Nebraska Game & Parks Commission

Ronnie Sanchez

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ritch Nelson

Natural Resources Conservation Service

John Heaston

The Nature Conservancy

John Thorburn

Tri-Basin Natural Resources District

Mark Vrtiska, Ph. D.

Nebraska Game & Parks Commission

The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture

Since 1992, the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture has worked to

restore, improve, and protect wetland habitat for migratory birds

in south-central Nebraska’s Rainwater Basin, but today the part-

nership is much broader than it once was, and so is its mission.

The importance of diversity is a fundamental principle to every

wildlife biologist. Diversity is also important to the work of the

Joint Venture. Our mission is more diverse than it previously

was; in conservation planning, we expanded our view beyond the

Rainwater Basin to the Platte River, the Central Table Playas and

Loup River system, the Sandhills, and other parts of Nebraska’s

mixed-grass prairie region. And we plan for the habitat needs of

not only waterfowl, but shorebirds, landbirds, and waterbirds.

The partnership has diversified as well, expanding to include not

only state and federal conservation agencies and a variety of pri-

vate conservation organizations, but also universities, extension

offices, multiple natural resources districts, county road depart-

ments, and agricultural organizations in the Rainwater Basin and

elsewhere in Nebraska. In addition, we work cooperatively with

Joint Ventures and other conservation partnerships throughout the

Central Flyway.

The arrival of over eight million ducks and geese and hundreds of

thousands of shorebirds each spring means that the Joint Ven-

ture’s primary conservation focus is still on providing adequate

wetland habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds. The partnership’s

growing diversity will make us more effective in fulfilling our

original mission, and in working for bird conservation across a

broader landscape.

The Year in Review: 2013

Fiscal year 2013 brought significant progress on

several of the RWBJV’s long-term initiatives,

and also brought opportunities to demonstrate

the progress we have made.

As the fiscal year began, our region had en-

dured an unusually hot and dry growing season.

While the weather posed challenges to our part-

ners and neighbors in agriculture, it gave

RWBJV partners additional weeks to conduct

wetland management, and to finish construction

projects.

In December, Nebraska Cattlemen heard about

the RWBJV’s Working Lands Initiative during

their annual convention in Kearney. Kristen

Hasselbrook, Nebraska Cattlemen’s director of

resources and environmental studies, made a

presentation about the partnership between the

RWBJV and Nebraska Cattlemen to increase

grazing opportunities in the region.

The USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife took

the lead in applying for a $1 million Coopera-

tive Recovery Initiative grant, and in early 2013

we received word of the approval. The grant’s

purpose is to fill reuse pits in the watersheds of

wetlands that have been identified as priorities

by the RWBJV Whooping Crane Model and the

RWBJV Watershed Restoration decision sup-

port tool. We expect this grant to result in sig-

nificant improvement in the function of several

important wetlands in the Rainwater Basin.

The 18th annual RWBJV Informational Seminal,

held in February, drew a record 150 people.

Photographer Michael Forsberg opened the day

with a stirring presentation entitled, “Pulse of

the Plains.” The seminar was funded in part by

a Nebraska Environmental Trust Public Infor-

mation and Education grant, administered by

the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Inc.

The Aerial Habitat Survey was flown March 15

-31. We have now conducted the survey and

documented the region’s springtime habitat

conditions in eight of the last nine years. This

long-term dataset provides, insight into habitat

conditions that result from variations in temper-

Northern Pintails at the recently restored wetland

on Hansen WPA.

Dedication of the 320-acre addition to Hansen

WPA. Photo credit: Niki Messmer

Dry conditions prevailed in the RWB in 2013.

Year in Review, contd.

ature and precipitation across the Rainwater Basin; its

value will only increase over the years as the dataset

grows.

A noteworthy event during spring migration was the

March 15 dedication of a 320-acre addition to Hansen

WPA in Clay County. Ducks Unlimited purchased the

land from a willing seller with funds from the Nebraska

Environmental Trust and DU supporters. After restora-

tion, the USFWS acquired the property from DU’s

Wetlands America Trust with Land and Water Conser-

vation funds obtained with the help of Senator Ben Nel-

son. This “roundout” acquisition not only increases the

size of the WPA; it improves the Wetland Management

District’s ability to manage the wetland and its water

and vegetation to benefit migratory birds.

In April we learned that the RWBJV had been approved

for three Nebraska Environmental Trust grants. The

first grant, entitled “Wetland Habitat Enhancement and

Restoration in Nebraska’s Rainwater Basin,” received

first-year funding of $350,000 for projects to improve

and protect migratory bird habitat and wetland function

on private and public lands. Part of this effort, in addi-

tion to on-the-ground habitat work, includes work to

increase awareness among the Rainwater Basin’s resi-

dents about the important contribution their region’s

wetlands make to waterfowl and shorebird populations

in the Americas.

A $75,000 grant for “Rainwater Basin Wetland Man-

agement” will help fund the control of invasive vegeta-

tion – such as reed canary grass, river bulrush, and hy-

brid cattail – through disking, herbicide treatment, pre-

scribed fire, and livestock fencing.

We received second-year funding in the amount of

$112,838 for our grant, “Development of Grazing Infra-

structure to Support the RWB Working Lands Initia-

tive.” This grant helps provide the fencing and livestock

watering equipment that make it feasible to graze pri-

vately owned wetlands and thus maintain their value as

wildlife habitat.

The Nebraska Environmental Trust continues to be an

incomparable resource, not only for the RWBJV, but

for conservation organizations and projects throughout

the state. We are grateful for their long-time support,

and we work hard to make good use of the important

investment they have made in the Rainwater Basin.

Bob Bettger stepped down as chair of the RWBJV

Management Board in May. Andy Bishop presents a

token of the Joint Venture’s appreciation for his ser-

RWBJV partners attended Sand County Foundation’s

“Innovations on the Land” symposium in July

The “Innovations on the Land” symposium included a

tour of RWB wetlands.

We were pleased in May to announce the addition of a new

page in the RWBJV website. The “GIS Projects” page in-

cludes brief summaries and complete project documents

for models and decision support tools developed by the

RWBJV Science Office. This format makes them readily

available to all our partners, or indeed, to conservation

practitioners or researchers anywhere in the world.

In July, the RWBJV participated in the Sand County Foun-

dation’s “Innovations on the Land” symposium in Lincoln.

The symposium brought recipients of the Leopold Conser-

vation Award together, along with other conservation pro-

fessionals from around the U.S., to meet and share ideas

about agriculture and conservation. In connection with the

symposium, we had the privilege to host a tour of the east-

ern Rainwater Basin to showcase the Working Lands Initi-

ative and discuss some of the innovative ways Rainwater

Basin cattle producers and RWBJV partners work together

and use grazing as a wetland management tool on private

and public lands.

Through a grant from the Great Plains Landscape Conser-

vation Cooperative, the RWBJV and Playa Lakes Joint

Venture held a series of landowner listening sessions in

July and August, facilitated by DJ Case & Associates, a

firm with international experience in communication on

conservation and environmental issues. The purpose of the

fourteen meetings, held from northern Texas to the Central

Table Playas in Nebraska, was to hear the opinions and

attitudes of landowners regarding playa wetlands, conser-

vation programs, and related topics. The report generated

by the meetings will provide feedback on current conserva-

tion programs and insight for developing future programs.

Just as importantly, it provides a baseline against which we

may, in the future, evaluate the effectiveness of our out-

reach efforts.

A tremendous amount of energy and time in fiscal year

2013 went into completion of the RWBJV’s revised Imple-

mentation Plan and the four bird plans on which it is based:

the RWBJV Waterbird Plan, Shorebird Plan, Landbird

Plan, and Waterbird Plan. The five documents were com-

pleted in late September and were awaiting formal approv-

al at the November management board meeting. Together,

these plans chart the course of the Joint Venture’s conser-

vation work in the next twenty years.

Year in Review, contd.

Native upland plants in the RWB provide habi-

tat for grassland birds and pollinators.

Grant funds from Nebraska Environmental

Trust helped provide livestock fencing to facili-

tate grazing in RWB wetlands.

Dale Daniel and assistant Raju Katwal collect

data to compare greenhouse gas emissions

from WRP wetlands against high-quality

wetlands like Gleason WPA.

Conservation through partnership has been

the hallmark of Joint Ventures since their

creation in the 1980s. While partnerships are

invaluable in creating and delivering on-the-

ground habitat projects, they are also im-

portant in less-tangible initiatives that lay

the groundwork for conservation success.

For example:

Development of a Nebraska Trust Species

and Habitat Fund. The RWBJV worked in

partnership with the Nebraska Community

Foundation, the NGPC, and USFWS to de-

velop the Nebraska Trust Species and Habi-

tat Fund as a means for the conservation

community to accept and manage voluntary

mitigation funds provided by a project’s

proponents when the project may affect cer-

tain habitats or trust species. The Nebraska

Community Foundation will manage the

funds; the RWBJV will administer the pro-

ject with the help of a newly formed

workgroup comprised of representatives

from partner agencies and organizations

with a state-wide focus.

Great Plains Data Steward. The RWBJV Science and GIS Office provides the partnership with

science support, including geospatial tools to guide strategic habitat conservation. The RWBJV has

been responsible for staffing, and other partners help fund the office in return for science support.

Partners include Playa Lakes Joint Venture, Great Plains LCC, the Platte River Recovery Implemen-

tation Program, and Central Platte NRD. In 2013 the RWBJV successfully proposed a partnership

arrangement with the Great Plains LCC to jointly fund a position that would serve both partners. Fif-

ty percent of the duties would be science support for the RWBJV office; the remaining duties would

be as Data Steward for the LCC, which had an ongoing need to disseminate extensive geospatial,

research, inventory, and monitoring results, through a web portal, to conservation partners through-

out the LCC and nationwide.

Cooperative Recovery Initiative Proposal. As described in the Year in Review section, RWBJV

partners submitted a proposal for funding under the Cooperative Recovery Initiative. The initiative

was created to fund the implementation on National Wildlife Refuge lands (including WPAs) of con-

servation measures outlined in the recovery plans of federally listed species. The success of our pro-

posal can be attributed in part to partnership work that predated the grant: the partner-funded

RWBJV Science and GIS Office had developed the Whooping Crane Habitat Suitability Index to

help identify which wetlands, if restored, would be most likely to provide suitable Whooping Crane

habitat. It had also developed a model to identify and prioritize the irrigation reuse pits that, if filled,

would have the greatest expected impact on the function of the nearby wetland.

The RWBJV is fortunate to have innovative partners who seek new ways to pursue strategic, science

-based conservation.

The Power of Partnerships

Income and Expenses — Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2013

FUNDING

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Allocation 457,822.00

Grants

Nebraska Environmental Trust 582,617.27

Other Grants and Funding Awards 2,720,995.29

Total Grants and Other Funding 3,303,612.56

Total Available Funding $ 3,761,434.56

EXPENSES

Regional Overhead and Admin. Support 31,843.29

Coordination 215,102.29

Communication 81,454.95

Planning 50,908.55

Monitoring, Evaluation and Research 390,471.95

Project Development and Implementation 2,991,653.53

Total Expenses $ 3,761,434.56

Regional Admin Support6.9%

Coordination 33.5%

Communication 0.0%

Planning 10.8%

Monitoring 7.3%

Implementation 41.5%

Regional Admin Support 0.0%

Coordination 1.9%

Communication 2.5%

Planning 0.0%

Monitoring 10.8%

Implementation 84.8%

1234 Federal Allocation:

Expenditure by Funding

Category

Rainwater Basin Joint Venture 2013

Partnership Funding

Funding from federal and non-federal

RWBJV partners totaled $3,303,612.56.

$2,801,810.40, or 84.8% of this, went to

implementation. Partner funding leveraged the 1234 Federal Allocation into total part-

nership funding of $3,761,434.56, 79.5%

of which went to implementation.

Rainwater Basin Joint Venture

Partners include:

Rainwater Basin landowners

Nebraska Environmental Trust

Ducks Unlimited

Farm Service Agency

Little Blue Natural Resources District

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Nebraska Association of Natural Resources

Districts

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Pheasants Forever

The Nature Conservancy

Tri-Basin Natural Resources District

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

U.S. Forest Service

Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District

County Highway Departments

….and many other groups and individuals

www.rwbjv.org