Land & Environment

Western Extension Directors Laud USU-led Community-Based Conservation

USU Extension wildlife specialist and professor Terry Messmer, left, accompanied by Ken White, USU Extension vice president and dean, accepts the WEDA Award of Excellence on behalf of Utah's Community-Based Conservation Program.

Utah State University professor Terry Messmer accepted the Western Extension Directors’ Association Award of Excellence on behalf of Utah’s Community-Based Conservation Program at a July 8 ceremony at the 2015 Western Region Joint Summer meeting hosted by Colorado State University in Breckenridge, Colo.

“I’m honored to receive this award on behalf of my CBCP colleagues,” says Messmer, CBCP director, USU Extension wildlife specialist and Quinney Professor for Wildlife Conflict Management in USU’s Department of Wildland Resources. “We will continue to engage local landowners, ranchers, agricultural producers, state and federal agencies and environmental organizations in partnerships that help protect sage grouse and the working landscapes that are the very essence of the Western way of life.”

“Terry and his colleagues are making a tremendous impact in Utah and across the region,” says Ken White, vice president and dean of USU Extension and the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences. “Their work is a great example of how Extension’s ability to get up-to-date, research-based information to people can help resolve issues that affect people and their communities.”

Messmer says the CBCP, which was formed nearly two decades ago and now has more than 40 public and private funding partners, demonstrates the power of sustained, high-level commitment and passion across local communities toward conservation.

“Our research started in 1996 with a $3,000 check given to me by rancher Andy Taft of Wayne and Piute counties’ Parker Mountain Grazing Association,” he says. “Those initial dollars have been leveraged into more than $50 million in funding. CBCP combines scientific research and extension efforts with community involvement and cooperation, thus representing the founding values and aims of the land-grant university mission.”

CBCP has been widely praised as a model for other states, he says, and sets a precedent for the role of incentive-based conservation in the management of sage grouse and other wildlife that depend on western sagebrush ecosystems.  

“Sagebrush is vital to wildlife in Utah as it provides habitat and forage for many species, including deer, pronghorn, neotropical songbirds and domestic livestock,” Messmer says. “The sage grouse plays an important role in sagebrush ecosystems and our conservation efforts provide a framework that can be replicated for protection of other sagebrush animals.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether or not to protect the Greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act by September 30, 2015. Earlier in the year, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed an executive order directing state agencies to protect and preserve the ground-nesting bird and its habitat in an effort to prevent the listing. The order lauded efforts by USU Extension and the CBCP in protecting and increasing sage grouse habitat.

“It’s imperative we continue to work together to preserve the precious sagebrush ecosystem and keep sage grouse off the endangered species list,” Messmer says.

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Contact: Terry Messmer, 435-797-3975, terry.messmer@usu.edu

Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu

A male Greater sage-grouse displays its tail feathers in a mating ritual aimed at attracting females. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services may list the iconic western bird under the Endangered Species Act. Image courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service.


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