Science Findings, Issue 142, May 2012. Sage-Grouse on the Edge: Understanding and Managing Western Landscapes for Their Survival.

摘要

Populations of greater sage-grouse have declined dramatically across their North American range for many decades in response to harmful effects of a variety of human activities and land uses, prompting legal actions to protect the species under the Endangered Species Act. To evaluate the impacts of landuse and habitat changes on sagegrouse, Michael Wisdom, a research wildlife biologist, and his colleagues used novel landscape modeling methods to carry out a comprehensive, rangewide analysis that considered 22 environmental factors in areas currently inhabited by sage-grouse compared to areas where the species is locally extinct. The researchers identified threshold values for the amount of sagebrush critical to sage-grouse persistence, addressing a key question about the species habitat requirements. The assessment also revealed the potentially negative impacts of talltower structures on sage-grouse occurrence. The findings highlighted the urgency of integrating efforts among public agencies and private landowners at all resource management levels to counter the cumulative and synergistic threats to sage-grouse conservation. In combination with related studies, this research has expanded the scientific knowledge base for resource managers and other decisionmakers concerned with designing and implementing landscape strategies for sage-grouse recovery.