Who We Are
The Great Plains Conservation Network (GPCN) is a collaboration of more than 25 non-profit and tribal organizations working together to conserve and restore the wildlife, habitats, and ecological processes of the Great Plains. We welcome any organizations that share this vision to join the network.
We employ science, public education, private sector initiatives, and advocacy to promote our vision of a sea of grass supporting healthy wildlife populations and human communities. We seek to enable, energize, and inspire participating organizations by linking our efforts in support of this vision. We meet twice per year in person and collaborate regularly between meetings via email and working group initiatives.
The Mission
The mission of the Great Plains Conservation Network (GPCN) is to restore and maintain the native species, habitats and natural processes of the Great Plains. Our strategy is to work in partnerships with those who live, work and recreate in this region to identify and maintain the areas that best contribute to this mission.
Through collaboration, we seek to prevent loss or fragmentation of these areas, restore wildlife where possible, and facilitate wildlife movement and other important processes.
To succeed, we must identify and link much larger areas than are designated for wildlife and habitat today. We must begin to think and to act on a different scale – the scale of natural processes (wildlife migrations, fire, hydrology) that transcend municipal and political boundaries.
The Program
GPCN is comprised of 25 conservation and tribal organizations as well as several individuals who have recognized both the necessity and the advantages of coordinating their efforts on a scale that mirrors the area they seek to conserve.
Within GPCN, science, public education, private sector initiatives, and advocacy are being employed to promote the GPCN vision and to enable, energize, and inspire participating organizations and individuals by linking their efforts to support that vision. By employing new tools to support conservation work, and by adopting mechanisms that foster the exchange of ideas and the coordination of action among participants,
GPCN hopes to restore North America’s grasslands, and to ensure the continued survival and health of its wildlife, wildlands, and human societies.
Get Involved!
If you would like to get involved with this exciting project, or find out about local organizations in your area, please email coordinator: GPCN Coordinator
Official Participants
FaunaWest
Inter Tribal Buffalo Council
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Recreation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Oglala Sioux Parks and Recreation