Wildlife Management Plan
Swisher County

The High Plains of the Texas Panhandle is a vast, flat landscape of short-grass prairie and irrigated cropland sitting atop the Ogallala Aquifer. Buffalo grass, blue grama, and sideoats grama once covered millions of acres, grazed by bison and pronghorn. Today, much of the region has been converted to irrigated cotton, grain sorghum, and wheat, with remaining native rangeland fragmented by center-pivot irrigation circles and wind energy development. Playa lakes, the region's signature wetland feature, dot the landscape by the thousands, providing critical habitat for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds.

Wildlife management on the High Plains centers on playa lake conservation, CRP grassland management, and rangeland restoration. Playa lakes are the primary recharge mechanism for the Ogallala Aquifer and the single most important wildlife habitat feature in the region. Protecting playas from sedimentation caused by tillage on surrounding cropland, maintaining native grass buffers around playa margins, and managing water levels through careful grazing are essential practices. On CRP contracts converting to wildlife management valuation, landowners should maintain the established grass cover, introduce prescribed fire or patch burning to create structural diversity, and install wildlife-friendly fencing that allows pronghorn passage. Mesquite and prickly pear encroachment on native rangeland requires periodic mechanical treatment followed by targeted herbicide application.

The lesser prairie chicken, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, is the flagship species of the High Plains. This grouse depends on native shinnery oak and mid-grass prairie for nesting and brood-rearing, and its populations have declined sharply due to habitat conversion and fragmentation from wind energy development. Pronghorn, the fastest land mammal in North America, requires large, open landscapes with minimal fencing. Mountain plover nests on bare, disturbed ground in short-grass prairie and fallow fields. Swift fox, burrowing owl, and ferruginous hawk round out a community of grassland specialists that benefit from maintaining large, connected tracts of native rangeland.