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Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) once occupied
parts of 12 states within the western United States and 3 Canadian
provinces. Populations of greater sage-grouse have undergone long-term
population declines. The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats
on which sage-grouse depend have experienced extensive alteration
and loss. Consequently, concerns raised for the conservation and
management of sage-grouse and their habitats have resulted in petitions
to list greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act.
This is the first range-wide assessment of greater sage-grouse using
the vast amount of population data collected over the past 60 years,
habitat information spanning the last 100 years, and literature
dating back 200 years. We did not make recommendations or suggest
management strategies. Rather, our goal was to present an unbiased
and scientific documentation of dominant issues and their effects
on greater sage-grouse populations and sagebrush habitats.
We organized the Conservation Assessment into 4 main sections. In
the first section, (Chapters 1 and 2), we presented background information
on greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats. We first introduced
the factors that have contributed to widespread concern about conservation
and management of sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats. We also described
the historical and legal administration as well as the current stewardship
of sagebrush habitats. We then provided information on the conservation
status of the species across its range-wide distribution. The second
section (Chapters 3-5) provided information on the basic ecology
of greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats. Our objectives were
to develop the underlying foundation on which to assess information
presented in the remainder of the document. In the third section
(Chapters 6-12), we described the current situation and trends in
sage-grouse populations and the dominant factors that individually
and cumulatively influence sagebrush habitats. In the fourth section
(Chapter 13), we integrated the habitat and population trend information
into a synthesis of the conservation status for sage-grouse and
sagebrush ecosystems in western North America.
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Principal Authors:
- John W. Connelly, Idaho Department of Fish
and Game, Blackfoot, ID, USA
- Steven T. Knick, USGS Forest and Rangeland
Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, ID, USA
- Michael A. Schroeder, Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, Bridgeport, WA, USA
- San J. Stiver, National Sage-Grouse Conservation
Planning Framework Team, Prescott, AZ, USA
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Range-wide
Conservation Assessment |
This
project is supported by SAGEMAP. As of July 2005, we have completed 97% of the Conservation Assessment metadata. Go
to the individual Chapters to access datasets and metadata currently available.
Stay tuned, we will post the few remaining records here,
and they will be accessible through the Data
Query page when they are
completed. Contact Us with
any questions. |
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“The value of this assessment may not be in what we have written,
but in the data that we have presented that now can be used for
advancing our understanding of the ecology of sagebrush-dominated
landscapes and species that depend upon them. Concerns for the conservation
of sage-grouse and sagebrush ecosystems have been expressed for
a long time (Patterson 1952, Braun et al. 1976). However, the inability
to quantify and address the primary issues across the entire sagebrush
biome limited those concerns because they lacked the breadth and
geographic and temporal scope of information that we have presented
in this assessment. Other large-scale, highly contentious natural
resource issues, such as those surrounding conservation of spotted
owls (Strix occidentalis), ultimately have resulted in significant
contributions to conservation, ecology, and management (Noon and
Franklin 2002). Similarly, we hope that the data that we have presented
in this assessment will permit effective conservation plans to be
developed that will ensure the species survival for generations
to come.” Conclusion, Chapter 13, Range-wide Conservation
Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats.
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