Join us for a new series focused on the natural history, wildlife, and people on the West’s working lands. This innagural post focuses on grasslands.

Newly expanded visual tool on the SGI Web App allows managers to better predict and mitigate negative impacts of fire and cheatgrass across sagebrush range.

by Nancy Patterson, BLM Rocky Mountain Region, via mypubliclands.tumblr.com | Greater sage-grouse, 350+ other species, and millions of people depend on the iconic sagebrush ecosystem for their survival. Learn what happens on the range each fall.

Water delivery is delayed by an average of nine days in sagebrush systems compared to juniper-dominated systems. Holding water later into the summer season helps the sagebrush system become more diverse, benefiting vegetation, wildlife, and ranchers. This is one of the greatest services that an ecosystem can provide in the West.

Today, the Sage Grouse Initiative is unveiling a new tool to catalyze and improve habitat conservation efforts across the western United States. The free SGI Interactive Web Application presents cutting-edge geospatial data covering 100 million acres.

By Eugene W. Schupp, Chad S. Boyd, and Shane Green | This new Great Basin Fact Sheet discusses how reducing woody plant cover can increase the production of perennial grasses and forbs, improve habitat for wildlife, and reduce the intensity and severity of wildfires.

Maintaining a resilient sagebrush steppe is job number one for sustaining sage grouse populations in the West. New tools are available to help conservationists better assess and manage vegetation to improve ecosystem resilience before and after wildfire.

Science Technical Fact Sheet: Mapping Potential Ecosystem Resilience and Resistance across Sage-Grouse Range using Soil Temperature and Moisture Regimes A recent scientific breakthrough links soil temperature and moisture regimes to sagebrush ecosystem responses to disturbance and annual grass invasion.  Soil climate data are fundamentally important in classifying and mapping soils, and are widely collected as part of […]