A conservation easement funded in part by the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative will protect some of the best habitat in California for mule deer, waterfowl, migratory songbirds, and sage grouse.

By Sean Whaley | “We’re ‘all in’ to make a difference for this bird over the long term,” said Thad Heater, Sage Grouse Initiative’s national coordinator, in this recent Las Vegas Review-Journal article.

Last month, university students pursuing careers in natural resource conservation participated in a service-learning project that had big benefits for birds, the participants, and sage grouse habitat in eastern California.

On the California-Nevada state line, a genetically-distinct population of greater sage-grouse once faced a precarious future. Today, that’s changed, thanks to Bi-State conservation partners like the Bureau of Land Management’s Bishop Field Office.

Bay Nature Magazine featured an excellent story by Eric Simons on the Bi-State sage grouse, its habitat, and how it is reshaping conservation in the U.S. SGI is proud to be involved in the unprecedented partnership working to conserve the distinct population of sage grouse in California and Nevada.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce its final decision in April on whether the Bi-State population of sage grouse will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Sage Grouse Initiative is working on multiple proactive conservation projects with partners and landowners to restore habitat and improve the Bi-State sage-grouse.

California rancher Mike Byrne shares why sage grouse conservation is working in his community in a new Western Livestock Journal that features the latest Sage Grouse Initiative results in 11 western states.

Sage grouse experts representing many stakeholders and partners of the Sage Grouse Initiative converged in Minden, Nevada, yesterday for a high-profile forum aimed at solving a key conservation issue for bi-state sage grouse that straddle the Nevada-California border: the expansion of pinyon and juniper forests into historic sagebrush-steppe.

Join SGI partner, the Bi-State Local Area Working Group, for an upcoming conference on how to manage the threat of conifer encroachment on sage-grouse habitat in California and Nevada. The forum takes place Feb. 25-26 in Minden, Nevada.

A forward-thinking group of people representing ranchers, agencies, conservation groups, private citizens, and universities came together in 2002 to form the Bi-State Local Area Working Group.