Intermountain West Joint Venture

10/22/2026

Our Water and Wetlands Coordinator Erica Hansen recently went out on a day trip out to an important wetland habitat in the Klamath Basin. Come along with us in this video! 🌾

The IWJV is honored to help support vital habitats like this one across 11 Western states. As Erica says—water is life, for all of us. To stay up to date on our work, we invite you to join our email newsletter in the link in this Reel's comments. Thanks for staying in touch with us!

10/20/2026

Looking for a job that will let you help enhance water resources around the Great Salt Lake?

We’re excited to announce an open position based in Ogden, Utah, designed to do just that!

The Ogden Wet Meadow and Sagebrush Specialist will assist USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in identifying, evaluating, and completing conservation plans and programs on farms, ranches, and other private lands to enhance soil, water, plants, wildlife habitat and other natural resources in Northern Utah. Particularly, this position will help enhance water resources for wildlife and people by supporting agricultural irrigation infrastructure improvements and land management practices that support wildlife habitat.

This job is open until filled, with preference given to applications submitted by November 17th.

10/15/2026

🌾 Beginning each spring in the Eastern Sierra, local ranchers like Emilio rely on flood irrigation to keep their working landscapes green and thriving. With a ranch about a mile away from Pine Creek, Emilio holds a deep connection to this valley and the water that sustains it. He manages a complex irrigation system with dozens of headgates, adjusting them multiple times a day depending on water availability and field needs. It's tough work.

➡ Learn the full story of Emilio's flood-irrigated ranch here: https://eslt.org/2026/10/13/building-for-the-future-of-flood-irrigation/

On flood-irrigated ranches, it’s also not just about the cattle. Many wildlife species, such as mule deer and migratory birds, also depend on the wetter habitats. In the Intermountain West, agricultural flood-irrigated pastures account for less than 3% of the region’s irrigated footprint but provide 58% of temporary wetland habitat (source: Intermountain West Joint Venture).

Eastern Sierra Land Trust is grateful to the USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Intermountain West Joint Venture for their partnership in creating thriving rangelands in the Eastern Sierra.

10/07/2026

Sagebrush rangelands are precious to us at the IWJV. There are a million reasons. Sunrise is one. Join us to see why 🌅

We lose over a million acres of one-of-a-kind sagebrush habitat every year. We’re proud to support project capacity staff across the West to try and keep this vital habitat safe and working for people and wildlife alike.

We’d love to stay in touch - click the link in this Reel's comments to join our newsletter, and be the first to know about news and work from the IWJV and our network of partners! 👋

09/24/2026

Restoration is rarely a single action. It is a process.

Before crews can treat an invasive plant like cheatgrass, partners need to understand where it is, how it is spreading, and where limited resources can make the greatest difference. That requires field inventories and monitoring, shared data, spatial prioritization, project planning, environmental review under NEPA and other permitting processes, and coordination among landowners and organizations.

Treatment is one vital step—but the work does not end there. Partners must return to treated areas to ask: Did it work? Is the ecosystem healthier? What should we do differently next time?

In southwest Montana, Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator Emma Fullerton helps connect these pieces across a nearly five-million-acre landscape. Working through the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership—and alongside essential partners including The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy in Montana, the Bureau of Land Management, the Beaverhead Conservation District, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service—Emma coordinates the people, information, and resources needed to turn individual observations of cheatgrass into collaborative, landscape-scale action.

This is why conservation delivery capacity matters. Across 11 Western states, the Intermountain West Joint Venture helps partnerships place dedicated conservation professionals in communities where they can coordinate monitoring, planning, collaboration, implementation, and follow-up. Because meaningful restoration takes more than the desire to “fix the problem”—it takes people with the time, relationships, and expertise to guide a project through every essential step.

09/22/2026

There’s a lot happening in bird habitat conservation. 🦆🐦🦉

We want you to be part of it.

🤝Join our newsletter community for stories, resources, and events to support this good work happening across the Intermountain West.

https://mailchi.mp/iwjv/2026-iwjv-enews-signup

09/21/2026

What does a family ranch have in common with a White-faced ibis? 🌾

Both stand to gain from a working land easement with Oregon Agricultural Trust.
For the Shuffield's family ranch in Lake County, Oregon, the easement is making it easier to afford adding more acres to their operation so that when it’s time to pass the ranch on to the next generation, no one goes bankrupt.

For the ibis, the easement means that the Shuffield’s flood irrigation practices can continue providing that *perfect* habitat for their colony to nest each spring and early summer on the fringes of Goose Lake.

Read the full story at the link in our comments!

09/15/2026

The IWJV is working to scale up active forest management.

Join us in this important work of capacity building and bird habitat conservation.

Ponderosa pine forests are adapted to frequent, low-intensity groun...

08/29/2026

🎥 Our Full Film is Live Folks!

🪏 One headcut. Three years. One determined group of people.

This is their story.

Watch Restoring The Headwaters on Youtube now ->
▶️ https://youtu.be/vPpT8DN-ahA
🖥️ bhwc.org/feature-films
📖 Read the Project Story -> bhwc.org/project/smith-sage

Produced by Tom Attwater Media www.tomattwatermedia.com

08/29/2026

🩸“We want to do more than just stop the bleeding”

And we did.

Watch “conservation through consensus” in action, in the real world, in the place we call home.

🎬 Restoring the Headwaters premiering on YouTube and our website — August 20th

▶️
🔗bhwc.org