The Mule Deer Foundation (MDF) announced today that it had hired a habitat partnership coordinator and a regional director to focus on the Dakota Grasslands region. Casey Nordine was hired in October to serve as the regional director who will coordinate chapter activities and fundraisers in South Dakota and Nebraska. In early November, Brennen Borah joined the MDF staff to serve as a habitat partnership coordinator working with state and federal agencies and private landowners to restore habitat for mule deer, sage grouse, pronghorn, and other wildlife in the Dakota Grasslands project area. Together with North Dakota regional director Sara Wagner, Wyoming regional director Shawn Blajszczak, and Montana regional director Chris Fortune, the Dakotas staff will direct focused effort to implement projects on the eastern range of mule deer, which is dominated by private land with intermixed federal and state lands. The efforts kicked off today with a volunteer project to remove old fencing or convert it to wildlife friendly designs on the U.S. Forest Service’s McKenzie Ranger District in western North Dakota.
The project completed yesterday on the Little Missouri National Grassland was an effort to remove fencing that was a barrier to wildlife movement and replace it with wildlife-friendly fencing. This was a “boots on the ground” project in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) by volunteers from MDF and the North Dakota Petroleum Council. Material expenses were shared by MDF and USFS, and equipment and labor were provided by MDF employees and industry partners with MAP Mechanical, ONEOK, Rossco Crane, TC Energy, and Terracon; lunch for the volunteers was provided by Weatherford. The project serves as an example of the opportunities that MDF and its partners will pursue through the Dakota Grasslands habitat conservation efforts.
“The Mule Deer Foundation has been growing our role in North Dakota over the past five years with volunteer and industry projects on private lands that benefit mule deer and many other wildlife species,” said MDF Chief Conservation Officer Steve Belinda. “The addition of Brennen and Casey to our team in the Dakota Grasslands region will create significant new opportunity for us to make a difference on the prairies where mule deer live.”
The Dakota Grasslands is a key focal area for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) Northern Great Plains program and consists of grasslands and sagebrush dominated habitats that are highly productive for pronghorn, mule deer, sage grouse, and numerous other grassland and sagebrush obligate species. State and federal agency partners have highlighted the need for cross-agency, partner coordination and planning for cumulative efforts to occur in the region. MDF received a grant from NFWF in summer 2022 to hire a Dakota Grasslands habitat partnership coordinator to focus on western North Dakota, eastern Montana, northwestern South Dakota, and northeastern Wyoming. In this position, Borah will provide critical new capacity to network with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), USFS, North Dakota Game and Fish, South Dakota Game, Fish, & Parks, Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks, and Wyoming Game and Fish Department as well as industry and conservation partners to implement landscape-scale habitat conservation in the region.
Brennen is a South Dakota native with a strong passion for wildlife and habitat management. He graduated from South Dakota State University with a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and spent 10 years with South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks managing habitat on both public and private lands. He will be based in Spearfish, SD at the north end of the Black Hills. Borah will work with federal, state, and private landowners on cross-boundary projects that improve the critical mixed-grass prairie ecosystem found in the project area, in particular removing conifers that are encroaching into grasslands, fencing modifications, riparian restoration, grazing plans, and more.
