Welcome to the 2024 Midwest Grasslands Summit Webpage!

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Flyer for the Midwest Grasslands Summit.

Overview and Next Steps

Summit Overview:

The Midwest Grasslands Summit, held from August 27-29, was a noteworthy success, gathering over 100 participants. The thoughtful engagement and diverse perspectives shared about Midwest grasslands led to meaningful discussions and strategic planning. For a closer look at the event, the booklet agenda offers a detailed overview of each day’s activities.

Next Steps:

As the momentum continues, a comprehensive Summit report summarizing the key outcomes and discussions will be released shortly. Exciting plans are underway to hire grasslands coordinators, enhancing our collective conservation efforts. Participants highlighted the importance of coalition building to effectively implement the strategies outlined in the report. Stay tuned for further updates as these initiatives progress!

 

What is the Midwest Grasslands Summit and why is it needed? 

The Midwest Grasslands Summit will take place August 27-29, 2024 at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens in Des Moines, Iowa. The summit will engage a broad and diverse audience of representatives from government agencies, Native Nations, NGOs, industry and agricultural organizations, and private landowners to develop a collective vision and identify collaborative actions to advance grassland conservation in the Midwest. Ranchers, farmers, water resource managers, wildlife biologists, agronomists, corporate sustainability officers, and policy makers have all voiced their desire to see a collective, collaborative approach to conserving and managing grasslands. 

Who should attend?

This summit is intended for organizational leaders with responsibility for setting strategic direction and allocating resources as well as staff who have responsibility for directing programs and actions. We are limiting attendance to be as inclusive as possible given the meeting space we have available. 

What are the goals of the summit?

  • Shape a unified vision for native and surrogate tallgrass habitats across the Midwest that focuses on collective impact of all partners and organizations.  
  • Build an active coalition of people invested in increasing grasslands on the landscape.  
  • Identify collaborative actions (policy, funding, management, etc.) to pursue as next steps moving forward to realize the vision of this effort. 

 

Prairie strips in agricultural field.
Photo credit: NRCS

 

FAQs

What is the registration fee? 

While not yet set, we anticipate the cost to be very low or potentially no cost.

 

How do I register? 

Those who receive an invitation will be emailed an RSVP form to register. 

 

Is there an agenda available for this meeting? 

The final agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.

Partners will participate in facilitated discussions to advance grassland conservation in the
Midwest, and through active participation will seek to achieve the following outcomes: 

  1. Explore individual and shared interests for midwestern grasslands.
  2. Identify barriers to and opportunities for extending, enhancing, and empowering grasslands conservation activities that are inclusive of the collective’s values.
  3. Explore activities that could deliver short-, mid-, and long-term impacts for grasslands conservation.

 

What hotel should I book? 

There are several hotel blocks reserved for this summit: 

  • Holiday Inn Downtown at Mercy Campus – block reserved until August 16- booking link here
  • Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Des Moines Downtown – block reserved until August 5- booking link here
  • Ramada Des Moines Airport Hotel and Convention Center – block reserved until August 19- call 515-287- 6464 and mention  block name “Midwest Grasslands Conservation Summit” or Group code “IowaDNR”
    • Please note: None of the hotel blocks are reserved at the government per diem rate. If this is a barrier, we encourage you to book outside the block to get the per diem rate, though we cannot guarantee rooms will be available.  

 

Other travel logistics:

  • There is free parking at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens, and free adjacent parking on the street, however carpooling is recommended.
  • Walking: From either Holiday Inn, there are nice sidewalks throughout Downtown as well as a very nice trail system along the Des Moines River (adjacent to the Botanical Center). If you are staying at the Downtown Mercy Campus, you will have to cross the interstate, though there are plenty of overpasses with sidewalks to do so, it will just be a less pleasant walk. The walks will take anywhere from 20-40 minutes. 

 

Why is this summit invite only? 

This is to ensure we can adequately manage an agenda and diverse voices are represented in the limited physical space we have available.  

 

What if I didn’t get an invitation and want to be involved moving forward?  

If you did not receive an invitation, we anticipate more opportunities following this initial summit. Stay tuned for more details on this web page. 

 

How does this effort fit into other conservation efforts, particularly the Central Grasslands Roadmap and JV8?

This summit seeks to leverage the success of the Central Grasslands Roadmap and JV8 while focusing on threats and opportunities specific to midwestern grassland conservation. Close coordination and communication with the Central Grassland Roadmap and JV8 partnerships are occurring and are critical to our shared success.