Oregon’s Local Implementation Teams (LITs) are collaborative local stakeholder groups spanning five regions of the state’s sagebrush rangeland ecosystems. Originally established in 2011 as part of the Sage-Grouse Conservation Assessment and Strategy, these groups bring landowners and resource managers together to collectively determine priority conservation needs in the face of habitat threats like drought, wildfire, invasive plants, and more. Oregon’s SageCon Partnership, with support from the Intermountain West Joint Venture, hired a team of coordinators to lead these five vital partnerships. Read on to learn more about the Baker, Burns, Lakeview, Malheur, and Prineville partnerships, the challenges they face, and the ways their coordinators are supporting their conservation communities.
Caitlin Harrold – Baker Local Implementation Team Coordinator
How would you describe the region you work in?
The Baker Local Implementation Team operates across a mix of private and public lands where agriculture and wildlife conservation are deeply intertwined. Stewardship is both a tradition and a necessity. The region supports important sage grouse habitat, alongside diverse rangelands, riparian areas, and seasonal wetlands.
What are the biggest natural resource management challenges your LIT faces?
Two big challenges are addressing invasive annual grasses, which alter fire regimes and degrade habitat; and managing wet meadows and riparian habitats, which are increasingly vulnerable to changes in water availability and vegetation condition.
What are the greatest opportunities you are working on?
We expand voluntary conservation with private landowners, who play a critical role in maintaining and enhancing sagebrush habitat, through Oregon’s Sage-grouse Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances Program. We also strengthen our use of monitoring data and tools through the Oregon Rangeland Monitoring Program to help evaluate treatment effectiveness, inform project prioritization, and support adaptive management. Finally, we are working to build sustainable capacity to implement large-scale restoration projects, including juniper removal, invasive species management, and mesic habitat restoration.
Since your LIT’s beginning, what have been the most significant accomplishments?
Since its inception, the Baker LIT has successfully brought together a diverse group of partners to collaboratively address sage grouse conservation at a meaningful scale. In 2019, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board awarded a Focused Investment Partnership (FIP) grant to the Baker Sage-grouse LIT. Some accomplishments as a result of that funding include:
- 3,993 acres of juniper removed
- 26,278 acres of invasive annual grass treated
- 11,346 acres of broadleaf weeds treated
- 14,537 acres seeded
- 56 landowners enrolled in habitat programs
…and many, many more projects through the funds this grant allowed us to leverage!
What is the #1 thing that encourages, inspires, or motivates you as an LIT coordinator?
It’s seeing how willing people are to come together to solve complex challenges when there is a shared goal. This work is not just about habitat—it is about supporting communities, livelihoods, and a way of life that depends on healthy, functioning landscapes. Being able to help connect people, resources, and ideas to tangible outcomes is incredibly rewarding.
Priscilla Doan – Burns LIT Coordinator
How would you describe the region you work in?
Harney County is the second largest and most sparsely populated county in Oregon—even basic shopping is often a two-hour drive for residents! About 75% of the area is federal land, and the county’s largest economies are based in natural resources and agriculture. The high desert topography receives little rain, leading to a stark landscape with rich ecological importance and innovative land management.
What are the biggest natural resource management challenges your LIT faces?
I’d say our three biggest focuses at the moment are dealing with wildfire, ongoing drought conditions, and juggling federal priorities for ecological restoration.
What are the greatest opportunities you are working on?
We work a lot with statewide programs, like the Oregon Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances program to protect and enhance sagebrush ecosystems on private lands. We also focus extensively on collaborating with federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, local partners like soil and water conservation districts, and landowners to implement habitat restoration projects.
In your time with the LIT, what have been the most significant accomplishments?
In six months, I have already made wonderful connections with various landowners and agencies—we’re excited about what we can accomplish together! I have two field tours scheduled in just the next week with over 30 anticipated participants, and 1,800 acres of contracted juniper treatments on private and public land. We also have project mapping of priority areas well underway.
What is the #1 thing that encourages, inspires, or motivates you as an LIT coordinator?
I am excited to make a difference by supporting partners and landowners with communication, planning, and implementation. People in this community are willing to try new innovative ideas to address ecological needs, ensuring the lands we all live on are healthy for generations to come.
Anna Kerr – Lakeview Local Implementation Team Coordinator
How would you describe the region you work in?
Lake County is a landscape defined by vast open spaces, rugged rangelands, expansive sagebrush steppe, forested mountains to the west and south, and productive agricultural valleys in the north end of the county. The scale of the landscape is hard to fully appreciate until you see it in person: long stretches of open country, working ranches, wildlife habitat, and public lands all woven together across an incredibly remote and beautiful region. There is a strong sense of community and stewardship tied to the land.
What are the biggest natural resource management challenges your LIT faces?
The three biggest natural resource management challenges we face within the Lakeview LIT are invasive annual grasses, juniper encroachment, and the growing threat of wildfire. These issues are all interconnected and have significant impacts on the health and resilience of our sage-steppe ecosystems. One thing that makes the Lakeview LIT unique is that we are still fortunate to have large expanses of relatively intact sage-steppe habitat. Much of our focus is centered on protecting these intact landscapes while strategically addressing threats before conditions become more difficult to reverse.
What are the greatest opportunities you are working on?
Right now, I’m most excited about re-engaging and rebuilding momentum within the Lakeview LIT to serve as a hub for sage grouse habitat work within the county, bringing partners together, and aligning conservation efforts happening on public and private lands. We are also collaborating closely with the Tri-Corner Community Collaborative to help with strategic and spatial planning efforts to identify priority landscapes, understand current and future threats, and build a framework for long-term habitat improvement across the region. Finally, I’m really excited about increasing the Lakeview LIT’s presence and involvement in North Lake County—there is tremendous opportunity to accomplish meaningful conservation work in a landscape that is often left out of conservation efforts.
Since your LIT’s beginning, what have been the most significant accomplishments?
From what I’ve seen so far, one of the most significant accomplishments of the Lakeview LIT has been serving as a convener and partner in the work of the Tri-Corner Community Collaborative. Helping bring together agencies, private landowners, nonprofits, and local stakeholders across such a large and diverse landscape is no small task, and the collaborative relationships built through those efforts are incredibly valuable.
What is the #1 thing that encourages, inspires, or motivates you as an LIT coordinator?
The opportunity to give back to a place that has shaped who I am! I grew up in Lake County, and this landscape is deeply personal to me. The wide-open spaces, the sagebrush country, the ranching community, and the people who make their lives here are things I care about on a very deep level.
Megan Wright – Malheur Rangeland Partnership Coordinator
How would you describe the region you work in?
This is the best place on Earth! I love the sagebrush steppe—the open rangelands, countless creeks, springs, and rivers, the wildlife, and the changing seasons. I feel incredibly blessed to have grown up on a Malheur County ranch. Springtime is my favorite: the sound of Western Meadowlarks, hillsides covered in wildflowers, calves and lambs romping around, beavers building dams, and tiny killdeer darting through the grass. It’s a landscape that’s both rugged and full of life.
What are the biggest natural resource management challenges your LIT faces?
Like much of the West, our landscape is a patchwork of ownership—private lands, BLM and USFWS, State Lands, and Tribal lands—so one of our biggest challenges is establishing strong collaboration across all of these partners for effective management. This is where the Malheur Rangeland Partnership is positioned to make a real difference. Additionally, invasive annual grasses are a growing concern across the region. They outcompete native perennials, aren’t sustainable forage for wildlife or cattle, and create a landscape that’s basically a tinderbox, ready for wildfire. Finally, Malheur County is in a persistent drought. Making the most of the water we do have can benefit wildlife, support ranching operations, and improve fire response capacity.
What are the greatest opportunities you are working on?
Our biggest opportunity right now is moving from planning to action. We are wrapping up our governance documents, which have been a critical step in building a strong, functional partnership. With that foundation nearly in place, we can begin focusing on priority projects—particularly around invasive annual grasses and cross-jurisdictional coordination.
Since your LIT’s beginning, what have been the most significant accomplishments?
Having stepped into this role in January 2026, I’ve been part of a period focused on building the foundation for long-term success. One of our biggest accomplishments has been establishing our core membership and nearing completion of our charter. These steps set the stage for what comes next: geographic prioritization, coordinated planning, and on-the-ground projects that support rangeland health, wildlife habitat, water conservation, and resilient communities across Malheur County.
What is the #1 thing that encourages, inspires, or motivates you as an LIT coordinator?
Like I said, I grew up ranching, and I still take every opportunity I can to stay connected to that way of life. What motivates me most is that this role reflects the values I was raised with—being a good steward of the land and its resources. I get to do work I care about, in a place I love, with people who are just as committed as I am. That’s pretty hard to beat.
Rebecca Kelble – Prineville Local Implementation Team Coordinator
How would you describe the region you work in?
The Prineville LIT area exists on the western edge of the range of the sagebrush ecosystem in North America. Located east of the Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine-dominated Cascade Mountains, central Oregon is the start of the sweeping sagebrush sea. The area is surrounded by juniper woodlands with rolling hills, buttes, and high tabletops. The area contains 10% of Oregon’s sage grouse population, as well as mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, pygmy rabbits, pinyon jays, and other important sagebrush wildlife species. The sagebrush ecosystem is stewarded by resilient ranchers and producers who care deeply about the land.
What are the biggest natural resource management challenges your LIT faces?
I’d say our biggest natural resource management challenges are juniper expansion into sagebrush rangelands, invasive annual grasses, and development.
What are the greatest opportunities you are working on?
The Prineville LIT collaborates extensively on juniper treatments, invasive annual grass treatments, and finding inventive funding sources! As the LIT Coordinator, I am positioned to encourage the group to come together and think outside the box about big challenges, including changing funding.
Since your LIT’s beginning, what have been the most significant accomplishments?
A big early accomplishment was creating a Threats Reduction Plan through group consensus. This involved an inventory of all conservation projects completed within the Prineville LIT boundary through 2022 to identify priority threats for the group to address. Through that effort, the LIT realized that Hampton Buttes was an area with high conservation readiness, and to date, that area has now received over $6 million in federal and state funds towards conservation work—including juniper treatments, invasive annual grass treatments, establishing a native seed source, removing and modifying fencelines, and installing pipeline and troughs.
What is the #1 thing that encourages, inspires, or motivates you as an LIT coordinator?
As I have taken on the challenge of coordinating this voluntary group of conservation leaders, I am continually impressed by everyone’s passion and dedication to a healthy sagebrush ecosystem. It is the common thread that links everyone together. At the end of the day, we are working to improve the health of the beautiful sagebrush ecosystem, a landscape worth saving. I am so excited to be a part of this process, helping these conservation leaders organize themselves to work on landscape-scale conservation.
To learn more about Oregon’s Local Implementation Teams, visit www.SageConPartnership.com.
