Fueling Conservation

In 2019, National Wild Turkey Federation staff conducted a site visit at Ovintiv’s 120-acre Boles Ranch near Foster, Oklahoma, to help the company restore previously disturbed land to its historic native-prairie ecosystem.

The area’s primary use is as an oil production field, where oil and natural gas are extracted and used to help power the world. Despite a few well sites, the area is primarily open fields with hardwood thickets. While there were patches of some native grasses, invasive species such as bermuda grass and old-world bluestem were beginning to envelop the area, risking the parcel becoming a monoculture with little value for wildlife and overall ecosystem health.

As part of efforts to restore previously disturbed land, Ovintiv saw an opportunity to optimize a 53-acre section of the property to boost ecological value, making the site productive for both wildlife and the economy.

Ovintiv engaged the NWTF, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, to create a management plan that would help restore the area back to its native prairie-grassland habitat. After the site evaluation by the NWTF, a management plan was created. What would unfold over the coming years would be a multiphase-restoration process that demonstrates the benefits of sticking with a habitat management plan over several years.

Restoration officially began in 2019, when Ovintiv started executing the NWTF’s management plan. The Ovintiv team began the process by prepping the site for prairie conversion, which included eliminating nonnative grasses from the project site. About a month later, the site was harrowed with a tractor along the elevation contour lines to reduce the threat of future erosion.

In late September 2019, the next steps of the management plan were implemented. The Ovintiv team was careful not to disturb the surrounding vegetation with tractors, mowers or other equipment during this stage, as old-world bluestem seeds and other invasive species can be inadvertently carried into the planting area on the wheels of the equipment.

The next phase was planting the array of native grass and forbs species. In February 2020, the Ovintiv team harrowed the area again to increase seed-to-soil contact. When the area was prepared for seeding, they used a no-till drill with a native seed box. After the diverse array of native seeds were planted, it was a waiting game, ensuring the area saw minimal disturbance over the next two years. The lapse of time allowed the native grasses and forbs to become fully established.

In spring of 2024, it was determined that the native species were fully established, and the Ovintiv team, in conjunction with prescribed fire specialists from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, executed the first prescribed fire on the project site.

“Rotational prescribed burning plays an essential role in maintaining prairie habitat,” said Annie Farrell, NWTF district biologist for Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Nebraska. “It stimulates new growth of native grasses and forbs, which attract more insects, thus providing brooding and foraging habitat for wild turkeys. Because of their intensive management efforts, Ovintiv will be able to cost-effectively maintain quality habitat through prescribed burning on Boles Ranch, ultimately benefiting wild turkeys, pollinators and other wildlife species in the long run.”

Across the country, there are many untapped havens for wildlife that can illustrate the symbiotic relationship of a thriving economy and thriving wildlife habitat; these could be out-of-bounds areas on golf courses, powerline corridors, or in this case, oil and natural gas production areas. Nevertheless, there just needs to be those willing to put in the work — like Ovintiv — to make it happen. What began as a desire to leave the landscape in a better condition blossomed (literally) into reality. Simply build it, and they will come.

While state and federal conservation agencies can implement conservation practices on public lands, there is an immense need to impact private lands, as over half of the U.S. is privately owned. In Oklahoma, where Ovintiv’s Boles Ranch is located, over 95% of the state is privately owned, meaning without partnerships with private entities, the NWTF and state and federal agencies are only able to impact 5% of land in the state. Luckily, Ovintiv and many other private entities are stepping up to the plate to help bridge biodiversity connectivity and develop strong relationships with private landowners.

“The NWTF has various methods for impacting private lands,” said Jared McJunkin, NWTF director of conservation operations. “Be it through the NWTF’s National Forestry Initiative, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife program or through various NRCS programs, we have multiple methods. However, it always takes the willingness of a private landowner.”

The Waterways for Wildlife Initiative is a comprehensive, landscape-level effort developed by the NWTF to address critically urgent conservation needs in riparian ecosystems along rivers and streams in the Great Plains of the United States.

Ovintiv, through an existing gift contributed by a predecessor company, was one of the first companies to step up and make a significant contribution to the NWTF’s Waterways for Wildlife Initiative. Using Ovintiv’s generous donation, the NWTF has enhanced over 179 stream miles and conserved 42,663 acres. In the initiative’s first three years, dozens of like-minded partners have made contributions equating to nearly $25 million. Over the next seven years, Waterways for Wildlife seeks to enhance 1,321 more stream miles and conserve 32,337 more acres of wildlife habitat.