Sagebrush Rangelands
Conservation Approaches
Our Conservation Focus Areas
Challenges to sagebrush ecosystem health are many, widespread, and varied from place to place.
To address these threats, we focus our sagebrush rangelands conservation efforts on five key areas:
Fire & Invasives:
We support our partners in their efforts to reduce fuels for catastrophic wildfire and combat the spread of invasive plants like cheatgrass, medusahead, and ventenata.
Wet Meadow Restoration:
We facilitate the installation, maintenance, and monitoring of low-tech process-based wet meadow and stream restoration structures to restore riparian systems.
Conifer Removal:
We coordinate the removal of conifer trees that have recently grown within historically fire-mediated areas in the sagebrush biome.
Outcome-Based Grazing:
We help our partners to implement Outcome-Based Grazing Authorizations, which are public-lands grazing permits that support livestock managers in their efforts to improve land health.
Big Game Migration:
We assist our partners in identifying important big game migration corridors, and bolster rangeland connectivity via the installment of wildlife-friendly and virtual fencing.
Sagebrush Conservation Strategies
The IWJV’s sagebrush rangelands conservation work involves three main strategies:
Partnership Development
Our flagship sagebrush conservation effort is called Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands, because the IWJV is only as strong as the partnerships we have developed in our work across the West. Our conservation efforts rely on the wisdom, support, and collaboration of over 500 organizations in federal, state, and local governments, businesses, NGOs, community planning groups, research groups, and more. Most important of all are our partnerships with people in rural communities across the West who steward both public and private land.
Sage Capacity Team
Through our partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and many other organizations across the West, we help host the Sage Capacity Team. This distributed network of people in priority landscapes develops lasting conservation partnerships and builds capacity for community-based conservation across fencelines.
Sage Capacity Team members help coordinate across public and private boundaries, break through bottlenecks and challenges, track projects and success, and facilitate forums that bring partners together.
Science to Implementation & Communications
The IWJV’s sagebrush conservation work is also supported with current science from our Science to Implementation team, and storytelling via our Communications team.
Resilient Landscapes Resource List
Find More Sagebrush Conservation Resources Below Guiding Strategies and Frameworks The resources…
Case Study: Oregon Threat-Based Strategic Conservation Workshops
Threat-based Strategic conservation: PRIORITIZING WORK IN SAGEBRUSH COUNTRY Case study submitted by…
At the Woodland’s Edge: Restoration and Complexity in Colorado’s Piceance Basin
At the Woodland’s Edge:Restoration and Complexity in Colorado’s Piceance Basin Between two…