The announcement that the greater sage-grouse will not be listed as threatened or endangered was welcome news for a northeast California team hard at work on the species, but it will not slow down their ongoing work to find collaborative approaches to conserving the sagebrush sea.
Members of the Buffalo-Skedaddle Working Group head out across a meadow on public land managed by the BLM along the northeast California-northwest Nevada state line. Photo by Jeff Fontana, BLM.
The group has been working for about a decade addressing sage grouse conservation and finding ways to conserve habitats that are important for sage-grouse and other wildlife, and for local economies that benefit from ranching and recreation on public lands in the cold, high deserts of northeast California and far northwest Nevada.
The Buffalo-Skedaddle Working Group, named for a population management unit of greater sage grouse (the Buffalo Hills and Skedaddle Mountain are nearby landmarks), spent a full day in the field along the California-Nevada border last week looking at the results of Rush Fire recovery projects, viewing habitat restoration sites, discussing locations for future projects and considering possible site-specific solutions to habitat problems.
Valda Lockie, an ecologist with the BLM Eagle Lake Field Office, discusses the success rate at a site where bitterbrush seedlings were planted as part of the rehabilitation effort associated with the 2012 Rush Fire. Photo by Jeff Fontana, BLM.
The working group consists of natural resource specialists including wildlife biologists, rangeland management specialists, ecologists and others, including ranchers. They represent the Bureau of Land Management, California and Nevada departments of fish and wildlife, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the ranching community and others.
Building on their 2006 Conservation Strategy document, the group works on projects focused on the diverse habitat needs of sage-grouse, including the open areas called leks that are essential for breeding, to expanses of sagebrush needed for nesting and raising chicks.
A view into the Buffalo-Skedaddle Population Management Unit for greater sage-grouse. Photo by Jeff Fontana, BLM.
Their 2006 strategy contained 17 conservation goals and habitat restoration targets. It calls for strategies to manage uses such as livestock and wild horse and burro grazing in ways that benefit sage-grouse habitat.
It also recognizes the critical connection of public and private lands and the essential partnership among the land managing agencies and landowners.
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Watch BLM California's YouTube video about fire strategies for protecting sage-grouse habitat.
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