| Fast Facts |
location
65 miles southwest of Rapid City
ecoregion
Black Hills
project size
73,000 acres
preserves
Nathaniel and Mary Whitney Preserve at Cascade Creek
public lands
Black Hills National Forest, Bureau of Land Management lands
partners
U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, private landowners
conservancy initiatives
Fire
natural events
orchids bloom, second half of June; tulip gentians bloom, second half of July; Townsend’s big-eared bats welp pups, mid-summer; elks bugle, mid-September; Custer State Buffalo Roundup, September– October | |
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| Private ranchland is key to protecting this diverse canyon, river and prairie system in the Black Hills, where terrain of the West meets forest of the East. |
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Cascade Creek, Whitney Preserve.
© Elaine Ebbert |
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Thirteen deep parallel canyons cut through the Black Hills of western South Dakota, their springs and seeps gathering and ultimately draining into the Cheyenne River. Ponderosa pines dot the canyons’ flat-topped ridges above a sea of prairie grasses where bison, elk and wild horses roam. Once the homeland of the Sioux, the Black Hills—with their abundant wildlife and water—remain sacred ground to many Native Americans.
A mixture of Rocky Mountain terrain, Midwestern prairie and Eastern deciduous forest, this ecological crossroads brings together wildlife and vegetation that coexist nowhere else on Earth. Birds of both eastern and western North America flock here. Cascade Creek, a tributary of the Cheyenne River, is a warm-water system that remains ice-free throughout the year—an important water source for local wildlife in winter and habitat for four plant species normally found only in the southern Great Plains. The craggy walls of the canyons are home to raptors and mountain lions; bighorn sheep have recently returned to the region. |
American bison,
Black Hills National Forest.
© Layne Kennedy/Corbis |
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This part of the Black Hills was spared from early development when the town of Cascade, founded in 1892, was abandoned two years later as the path of the railroad was diverted. Today Cheyenne River Canyons is a patchwork of public, private and tribal ownership. Although the landscape remains remarkably intact, residential development from the growing town of Hot Springs threatens to fragment this unique canyon system. | |
The Nature Conservancy seeks to avert subdivision within the entire project area, particularly in the largest undeveloped landscape in the Black Hills—42,000 acres with only one cabin. We are working with private landowners in this core landscape to protect their land through both outright acquisition and conservation easements. In 2000, we helped the U.S. Forest Service acquire critical private inholdings in the Black Hills National Forest in exchange for surplus federal lands.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in South Dakota. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
warm-water spring and riparian system, bighorn sheep, elk, mountain lion, Townsend’s big-eared bat, four rare plants (tulip gentian, stream orchid, southern maidenhair fern and beaked spikerush) reliant on warm-water riparian habitat
stresses
habitat fragmentation from subdivision, reduced frequency of fire
strategies
acquire land, secure conservation easements, promote land exchanges, encourage conservation management of public land, restore ecosystems through fire management
results
33,000 acres in conservation management; fire management agreement signed with National Park Service | | | | |
