Today, Secretary Vilsack announced that the USDA will invest $40 million in 2016 to help ranchers and other partners restore and protect sagebrush habitat for sage grouse on privately-owned land. Learn more about this exciting Working Lands for Wildlife partnership here!

By Holly Copeland. “So what is your take on the sage-grouse ruling?” This beautiful dancing bird has been in my thoughts almost daily for the past nine years, as it has also been for the hundreds of other scientists who are working on sage-grouse. But suddenly, this species was now in the consciousness of many other Americans, too.

In recent years, a new appreciation is taking hold in the West about the role and benefits of sustainable ranching. The article below captures the essence of why we believe that sage grouse conservation is best achieved through working cooperatively on private lands

Two national conservation leaders from the USDA-NRCS and the National Audubon Society co-wrote this recent editorial about how targeted, proactive conservation on agricultural lands by private landowners is leading the way in restoring habitat for threatened wildlife species in the West.

This story on Colorado rancher Wes McStay’s conservation practices comes from “Where the sage grouse roam” by Lauren Blair. This 3-part series appeared in the Craig Daily Press in June 2015.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the Sand County Foundation’s publication “Stories From The Range,” which features six different ranchers’ sage grouse conservation successes, including SGI projects.

The NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative partners with private landowners to put in place conservation projects like these examples, which will protect the sagebrush sea, western rangeland, and all of the people and wildlife who depend upon these landscapes.

Sage grouse like the habitat around the Pokorny Ranch, and the Pokornys like the conservation improvements SGI helped them make on their Wyoming ranch. “They were the first landowners I had to enroll in the program,” says Kevin Edinger with the Wyoming NRCS. “These folks are really progressive operators. They’re as good as it gets.”

Seeing sage grouse inspires the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust —a Sage Grouse Initiative partner. CCALT has protected more than 45,000 acres of sage grouse habitat on working ranches.

This story on voluntary range improvements by Montana ranchers Patrick and Christy Lohof appears in the new Spring edition of John Deere’s The Furrow magazine. Read on to see excerpts from “To lek with grazing” by Martha Mintz.