Sage-grouse

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Water is life: Mesic habitat conservation strategy

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Recognizing the importance of mesic habitats in the desert, the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative announces a new conservation strategy that empowers private ranchers and our partners to protect and enhance the wet, green places that sustain working lands and wildlife.

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Nevada Society for Range Management Suggested Reading – Winter 2017

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These abstracts summarize rangeland management topics in the West.

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Range-wide connectivity of priority areas for greater sage-grouse: Implications for long-term conservation from graph theory

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This study used graph theory, representing priority areas as spatially distributed nodes interconnected by movement corridors, to understand the capacity of priority areas to function as connected networks in the Bi-State, Central, and Washington regions of the greater sage-grouse range. The Bi-State and Central networks were highly centralized; the dominant pathways and shortest linkages primarily connected a small number of large and centrally located priority areas. These priority areas are likely strongholds for greater sage-grouse populations and might also function as refugia and sources.

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Patterns in greater sage-grouse population dynamics correspond with public grazing records at broad scales

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This study used public land records to characterize livestock grazing across Wyoming, USA, and we used greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as a model organism to evaluate responses to livestock management. The study found grazing can have both positive and negative effects on Sage-grouse populations depending on the timing and level of grazing. Sage-grouse populations responded positively to higher grazing levels after peak vegetation productivity, but populations declined when similar grazing levels occurred earlier, likely reflecting the sensitivity of cool-season grasses to grazing during peak growth periods.

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Sage-grouse groceries: Forb response to piñon-juniper treatments

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This study analyzed data sets from previous and ongoing studies across the Great Basin characterizing cover response of perennial and annual forbs that are consumed by sage grouse to mechanical, prescribed fire, and low-disturbance fuel reduction treatments. Annual forbs favored by sage grouse benefited most from prescribed fire treatments with smaller increases following mechanical and fuel reduction treatments.

Restoration Handbook Part 3 Cover

Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat—Part 3. Site level restoration decisions

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This handbook walks managers and practitioners through a number of site-specific decisions managers face before selecting the appropriate type of restoration. This site-level decision tool for restoration of sagebrush steppe ecosystems is organized in nine steps.

  • Step 1 describes the process of defining site-level restoration objectives.
  • Step 2 describes the ecological site characteristics of the restoration site. This covers soil chemistry and texture, soil moisture and temperature regimes, and the vegetation communities the site is capable of supporting.
  • Step 3 compares the current vegetation to the plant communities associated with the site State and Transition models.
  • Step 4 takes the manager through the process of current land uses and past disturbances that may influence restoration success.
  • Step 5 is a brief discussion of how weather before and after treatments may impact restoration success.
  • Step 6 addresses restoration treatment types and their potential positive and negative impacts on the ecosystem and on habitats, especially for greater sage-grouse. We discuss when passive restoration options may be sufficient and when active restoration may be necessary to achieve restoration objectives.
  • Step 7 addresses decisions regarding post-restoration livestock grazing management.
  • Step 8 addresses monitoring of the restoration; we discuss important aspects associated with implementation monitoring as well as effectiveness monitoring.
  • Step 9 takes the information learned from monitoring to determine how restoration actions in the future might be adapted to improve restoration success.
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Wildfire, climate, and invasive grass interactions negatively impact an indicator species by reshaping sagebrush

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This study provides quantitative evidence linking long-term declines of sage-grouse to chronic effects of wildfire. Projected declines may be slowed or halted by targeting fire suppression in remaining areas of intact sagebrush with high densities of breeding sage-grouse.

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Great Basin LCC Projects, News, Events, and Story Maps

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Explore the Great Basin LCC, its projects, events, story maps, and news.

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Investigating impacts of oil and gas development on greater sage-grouse

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Findings of this study supports other studies reporting negative impacts of oil and gas development on sage-grouse populations and our modeling approach allowed us to make inference to a longer time scale and larger spatial extent than in previous studies. In addition to sage-grouse, development may also negatively affect other sagebrush-obligate species, and active management of sagebrush habitats may be necessary to maintain some species.

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Hierarchical population structure in greater sage-grouse provides insight into management boundary delineation

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This study found two levels of hierarchical genetic subpopulation structure. These subpopulations occupy significantly different elevations and are surrounded by divergent vegetative communities with different dominant subspecies of sagebrush, each with its own chemical defense against herbivory. We propose five management groups reflective of genetic subpopulation structure. These genetic groups are largely synonymous with existing priority areas for conservation. On average, 85.8 % of individuals within each conservation priority area assign to a distinct subpopulation. Our results largely support existing management decisions regarding subpopulation boundaries.

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