By Published On: December 13, 2022

Our Top 9 from 2022

2022 was a powerful year for the IWJV’s partnership. Our top nine stories of the year reflect a range of conservation successes, from targeting invasive annual grasses more strategically to innovations in flood irrigation infrastructure that keep wetlands wet and ranchers in business. The overriding theme through it all? People coming together to find new and creative ways to make headway against what sometimes seems like an overwhelming tide of conservation challenges.

The Solution Seekers

The water crisis in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande Valley is a microcosm of long-term drought playing out across the West. So, too, are the ways in which people are coming together to meet conservation challenges head-on.

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Understanding Wetland Losses

This Intermountain Insights highlights science from the IWJV and partners that identifies severe wetland drying trends in the Pacific Flyway—and how land managers can use this information to make strategic conservation decisions.

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Keeping Wetlands Intact in California

The Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service helps landowners manage their wetlands for conservation.

Check Out the Storymap

Partnering in the New West

Many conservation groups are teaming up to create cost-shared positions to work beyond their organizations’ silos and limitations. Called partner positions, these people provide crucial capacity to build relationships that result in durable conservation.

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A Nexus for Native Fish & Agriculture

“Auto-Tarps,” the focus of a Conservation Innovation Grant awarded to Colorado Trout Unlimited and partners, can help flood irrigators be more efficient with water deliveries while maintaining wet meadow habitat.

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Invasive Annual Grasses Spatial Dataset Project

There are SO many datasets mapping invasive grasses. People struggle to identify which of are most relevant to their work, or are unaware that these resources exist at all. This project sorts through the similarities and differences among many of these resources.

Access the Data

TCP Benefits Community, Wildlife in the San Luis Valley

Infrastructure funding from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service recognizes the role flood irrigation plays for wildlife, people, and an entire watershed.

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The Need for Flexibility

A video explores the Bureau of Land Management’s Outcome-Based Grazing program, the flexibility it provides to producers, and its benefits to sagebrush habitat.

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From the Inside Out

Partners in Idaho are focusing on core sagebrush habitat to keep invasive annual grasses at bay.

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