NRCS Conservation Practices and Materials
Wildlife Wednesdays Webinar Series: Northern Bobwhite Quail Ecology & Conservation
New Jersey Audubon's Kati DePaola discusses Northern Bobwhite Quail ecology and conservation programs.
WRE Program Wetland Reserve Easements - ACF Conservation Practices
Wetland Reserve Easements help private and tribal landowners protect, restore and enhance wetlands which have been previously degraded due to agricultural uses. This video explores how the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and NRCS are working together to implement this practice in North Liberty, Indiana.
Aquatic Connectivity Framework Update
In June 2024, the USDA announced an unprecedented investment in WLFW, including the launch of an Aquatic Connectivity Framework. This ecosystem-level plan transitions WLFW’s aquatic efforts from single-species initiatives to a broader landscape-scale approach across 16 states. The written framework plan will capture the science documenting the threats to biomes and the wildlife that are part of them, the conservation actions that NRCS can support to address these threats and benefit producers, and the NRCS goals for implementing these actions over time. The framework also is a way to guide the work of NRCS state offices, provide technical and financial assistance for on the ground conservation, and influence local, state and federal conservation policies.
Wildlife Wednesdays Webinar Series: American Black Duck Ecology & Conservation
New Jersey NRCS' Partner Biologist from Ducks Unlimited, Ben Langey, discusses American Black Duck ecology and conservation programs.
Wildlife Wednesdays Webinar Series: Intro to New Jersey NRCS Conservation Programs
Introduction to New Jersey NRCS Conservation Programs, Working Lands for Wildlife, & Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.
Evaluating Efficacy of Agricultural Conservation Practices
Joshua Mouser presenting their dissertation research funded by NRCS, "Using an interdisciplinary approach to improve efficacy of agricultural conservation practices for protecting stream health."
New “Bobscapes” Mobile App Helps Establish National Bobwhite Database
New “Bobscapes” Mobile App Helps Establish National Bobwhite Database
Supporting America's Working Lands
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) partners with agricultural producers to ensure these lands are healthy, productive and resilient long into the future.
Recommended Conservation Practices for Herpetological Species: Fact Sheets
These fact sheets identify key information about threatened and endangered herpetological species and identifies recommended NRCS practices under EQIP and ACEP–WRE.
Private Land Biologist (PLB) & Private Land Engineer (PLE) Support Teams - Helping NRCS State Offices Bring Aquatic Conservation to Life
The Aquatic Connectivity Framework is supported by two specialized teams working across priority regions. Private Lands Biologists (PLBs) bring deep knowledge of aquatic ecology to help NRCS staff with landowner outreach, habitat assessments, and biological planning. Private Lands Engineers (PLEs) apply Water Resource Engineering expertise to design practical solutions for stream crossings, bank stabilization, and fish passage. Together, these teams strengthen the capacity of state offices to deliver effective aquatic conservation on private lands.
Evaluating the Success of Habitat Restoration
A Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) study of NRCS-Supported Eastern Hellbender Habitat Restoration on the Middle Fork Holston River in Smyth County, Virginia.
WLFW East Region Conservation Webinar Series: Northern Bobwhite Session #14 “Pollinators and Quail”
Session 14 of the “Northern Bobwhite” mini-series was presented by Dr. DJ McNeil at the University of Kentucky. This session focuses on recent research studying pollinator responses to common NRCS practices used for bobwhite habitat management.
Restoring Degraded River Habitat for Eastern Hellbenders
Restoring aquatic habitat in streams degraded by past human activities is an important component of conservation strategies for Eastern Hellbenders across the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America. Recent work in Virginia’s Middle Fork Holston River found that restoration efforts placed heavily-degraded reaches of this waterway on similar habitat trajectories to nearby reference reaches with confirmed hellbender presence. These similarities remained following severe flooding from Hurricane Helene and an additional significant flood event in Winter 2025, indicating that restoration efforts may also help improve resilience to future disturbance events in impacted waterways.
CHIRAM Kickoff Meeting Notes
Notes from kickoff meeting organized by The Nature Conservancy on April 30, 2025
AMJV Management Board-APP Collaborative Joint Meeting Notes
Notes from Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture Management Board / Appalachian People and Places Collaborative Joint Meeting in Asheville on April 30, 2025
Integrating multiple data sources with species distribution models to estimate the distribution and abundance of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) in the United States
Our study provides an important example of how datasets collected at different spatial scales under different observation protocols can be integrated via SDMs to improve abundance-based modeling and correct for weaknesses of individual datasets. Our modeling framework provides regional estimates of the drivers of bobwhite abundance and range-wide estimates of abundance for guiding both local and range-wide bobwhite conservation.
