Division of Wildlife
PARTNERSHIPS CRITICAL TO GREATER SAGE-GROUSE SUCCESS
Local, state and federal groups work to help maintain and increase greater sage-grouse populations
The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) has partnered with numerous local groups in significant areas of greater sage-grouse habitat in Colorado to help maintain-and in some areas increase-populations of this native bird.
Collaborators include private landowners, federal agencies, state agencies, county and local governments and organizations, sportsmen's groups, ranching groups, local land trusts, non-governmental organizations, power and electric companies, mining companies, oil and gas companies, and others.
"Partnerships are the key to our success in improving the greater sage-grouse habitat in Colorado and instrumental to doing everything we can to prevent the decline of the bird to endangered status," said Tom Remington, DOW terrestrial section manager.
North Park
The DOW is working with the North Park Greater Sage-grouse Working Group, the Owl Mountain Partnership, and the Habitat Partnership Program (HPP) to begin sagebrush habitat projects on the ground in North Park.
The North Park projects have centered on improving sagebrush habitat, which is central to the success of the greater sage-grouse.
"We've been applying different treatments to the sagebrush to promote a variety of age classes of sagebrush and increase the amount of grasses and forbs, which will improve sage-grouse habitats in the long term," said Liza Graham, DOW habitat biologist in Steamboat Springs.
Treatments include brush beating, or manually cutting up the sagebrush to promote new growth, mechanical treatments such as the Dixie harrow, which trails behind a tractor and rips up older bushes and leaves younger ones behind, and the Lawson aerator, which breaks up sagebrush, disperses seed, and creates slashes in the soil for water to pool and increase germination of new seedlings.
"We try to replicate the natural disturbances a fire would create, traveling up a draw and leaving patches of sagebrush, allowing for new growth and understory grasses and forbs to establish themselves," Graham said.
These treatments are beneficial to the sage-grouse and other species, and benefit ranchers as well. More grasses and forbs create better grazing grounds for their livestock. Ranchers also do their part to contribute to the success of the sagebrush treatments.
"The ranchers agreed to defer from grazing in the area for two growing seasons to allow the grasses and forbs to establish themselves, and later they manage grazing practices with sagebrush health in mind," Graham said.
Monitoring of the different treatment projects will also be a collaborative effort. Owl Mountain and HPP are funding the mapping of different sagebrush disturbance treatments.
The North Park Conservation Plan covers all the sagebrush-dominated grasslands and the associated irrigated lands, mountain meadows and riparian areas in Jackson County. Occupied habitat in North Park covers 410,675 acres and the number of active leks, or mating grounds, and numbers of males per lek remain close to the historical high.
Middle Park
The DOW also partners with The Middle Park Sage-grouse Committee. The group was formed in 1999 and has had its conservation plan in effect since 2001. A work plan is developed each spring by representative members and reviewed each December. This local working group has partnered with federal, state, local and tribal governments as well as ranchers and other landowners.
The Middle Park committee has completed numerous research projects, including compiling vegetation data to track trends in grouse habitat, bird occurrence and habitat use-specifically as it relates to nesting and brood rearing-identification of high-value sage-grouse habitat (led by the Nature Conservancy), and analyses of local population characteristics.
On-the-ground projects included fence modifications and elimination of raptor perch sites to reduce predation on grouse, a seasonal road closure on a Bureau of Land Management road to protect a breeding area, vegetation treatments on 135 acres of state and BLM land, and treatment of 240 acres north of Pinto Valley.
The Middle Park Sage-grouse Committee has also focused on public outreach and education in recent years, increasing cooperation and alleviating suspicions that existed regarding mandates to protect and stabilize sage-grouse populations in the area. Information kiosks, a birding guide for West Grand County and continued presentations of wildlife values on a landscape basis are a few examples of recent outreach efforts.
Middle Park lies in the intermountain basin straddling Grand and Summit counties, situated in north-central Colorado. Greater sage-grouse occupy 256,823 acres in Middle Park, and overall lek counts continue to remain above historical averages.
Northern Eagle/Southern Routt
The Northern Eagle/Southern Routt Greater Sage-grouse Working Group is finalizing its Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Plan, which it expects to release in early September.
"We've had really good participation and buy-in throughout the process," said Liza Graham, a DOW habitat biologist.
"People are taking ownership over recommended actions."
A radio telemetry project was initiated in the fall of 2003. Biologists have radio-collared 11 grouse so far, and hope to top 20.
"It's a great collaborative effort with the BLM providing the funding and the DOW doing most of the work," Graham said.
Biologists want to gather data on local sage-grouse populations, including nest and brood locations, resulting in an evaluation of the bird's habitat.
"This research will inform the conservation plan and implementation actions, helping us manage the habitat better," Graham said.
Greater sage-grouse occupy 80,317 acres in northern Eagle/southern Routt counties. Lek counts in northern Eagle County increased to 14 in 2003, compared to seven in 2002 and three in 2001. Numbers are holding fairly steady in southern Routt County, and are consistent with the last 30 years.