ENTERPRISE — Wallowa Resources will receive one of three grants to fund conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest, according to a press release.

The Enterprise-based nonprofit is scheduled to receive $323,348.32 approved by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation out of a total of $1,755,163.61 from the Conservation Partners Program. The grant will provide farmers, ranchers and forest landowners with targeted technical assistance to improve stewardship on working lands and achieve specific conservation outcomes.

Marci Schreder, lead director for Wallowa Resources on its range program, said the grant goes along with the greater emphasis the nonprofit has been placing on working lands.

“Our grazing lands and farmlands are super-important,” she said.

She added that the infusion of cash will go to empower Northeast Oregon’s ranching community through developing high-demand ranching skill sets among livestock operators and to convene them in Natural Resource Conservation Service initiatives. Among these will be a regional rangeland summit in La Grande in April and others in Wallowa County.

“The project will increase the number of rangeland properties operating with best management plans in an imperiled grassland landscape of Wallowa County, in Northeast Oregon,” Schreder said.

Wallowa Resources will be contracting with six rangeland consultants to advise producers and write rangeland management plans for their use.

“This is a great way to help support the local community and purchase materials locally,” she said. “We have incredible producers here in Wallowa County.”

She said the new grant opportunity opened the door to more conservation on working landscapes. It’s tied to the NRCS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative and the two together will let producers get connected to funding they’ll be able to use on conservation. One focus will be on water improvement projects and another on fencing to better control livestock.

Controlling invasive grasses — such as medusahead rye — is another element of the conservation plan.

“These are dollars to help support that,” Schreder said. “Our grazing lands are such an important part of our rural economy.”

The funding will help develop an action plan for producers.

“This is a first step toward developing that plan,” she said.

The Oregon awards are part of 27 grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation totaling $14.7 million to support the implementation of voluntary conservation practices on farms and ranches across 21 states, from the Midwest to Western grasslands. The grants will leverage approximately $7 million in matching contributions from grantees, generating a total impact of $21.7 million, according to the press release.

In addition to the grant going to Wallowa Resources, two others in the Northwest are:

• $921,853.11 to expand Audubon Conservation Ranching in California and the Columbia Plateau in Oregon, Idaho and Washington.

• $509,962.18 to enhance agricultural resilience in the Deschutes Basin of Oregon.

Schreder emphasized that Wallowa Resources had valuable partners who helped obtain the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant. Those include the Oregon State University Extension Service, the Nature Conservancy, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Wallowa County Soil and Water Conservation District.