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The Dodo of the Desert
The following story is by Julia Babcock with the Oregon Sage-grouse Conservation Partnership. My father worked in the genetics lab in the 1970’s. It gave him the sense that anything was possible; that humans and nature could collaborate to shape both DNA and destiny. Growing up, my father told me that my life’s work was…
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Hope After Rangeland Fire
Note from the IWJV Coordinator, Dave Smith: The turning of the page into a new year brings an array of human emotions – reflection, gratitude, anticipation, a resolve to improve, and, most of all, hope. In 2021, coming off perhaps the most difficult year in a century, hope exists at so many levels. There is…
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SageWest 2020 Summer Series: Fire & Invasives
Invasive annual grasses are dramatically compromising sagebrush country by reducing forage quality and quantity, altering wildfire regimes, impacting species diversity, reducing wildlife habitat, and straining already challenged local economies. Amongst SageWest’s 150+ entities (state and federal agencies, universities, collaboratives, non-governmental organizations, etc.) are many that are tackling this challenging issue. Thus, this platform is uniquely…
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SageCon Invasives Initiative: Hot on the Horizon in Oregon’s Rangelands
The wildfire and invasive fuels problem will not be solved in silos around the West. The Oregon-based Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership (known as SageCon) launched its Invasives Initiative to strategically link local and regional invasive grass efforts. “Working with noxious weeds is like a bare-knuckled bar brawl. Some years you gain ground, others you get beat,…
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Why is Sagebrush Country on Fire?
Through SageWest, a sagebrush communications network, Audubon and Intermountain West Joint Venture partnered with the Bureau of Land Management in offering a 1-hour webinar presentation on June 3rd, 2020, titled “Why is Sagebrush Country on Fire?” Thank you to everyone who participated, we had a great turnout with folks ranging from policy-makers to practitioners in this field to those…
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Community Partnerships in Action: Soda Fire, Idaho/Oregon
Collaboration in Sagebrush Country This story is brought to you by the partnership between the Intermountain West Joint Venture and the Bureau of Land Management as part of a series highlighting local success stories and what made them possible. The Place Soda Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation During the summer of 2015, the Soda Fire burned…
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Invasives and Rangeland Wildfires: What We Want To Do About It
“Fire and Invasives is the paramount conservation issue facing the West. We are losing the sagebrush ecosystem. With science, collaboration and funding there is still hope.” — San Stiver, WAFWA Sagebrush Initiative Coordinator Sagebrush rangelands once covered nearly 250 million acres in western North America. Today, this landscape has been reduced to half its original…
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Reporting on Fire & Invasives in Sagebrush Country
For those of us working and living in sagebrush country, the beauty of this place, its fragility, and its value might not seem like a hard or insignificant story to tell. Unfortunately, there are millions of people who don’t value this ecosystem as we do or even know about its existence. But sagebrush once covered…
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Putting the Science to Work
In the following essay you hear from the lead editor of the Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome, Part Two: Management Applications. This story summarizes the recently released framework that provides management approaches for applying science and prioritization to sagebrush habitats. By Michele Crist, Landscape Ecologist for the Bureau of Land…
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Featured Films
Creating Miracles in the DesertDixie Creek is a small stream near Elko, Nevada. Changes in livestock grazing practices resulted in the plants that naturally grow along streams to come back which eventually attracted beaver. The beaver built dams which captured and slowed stream flows, ultimately creating a landscape full of water and wildlife even during…
