Sage-grouse

In August, volunteers from Backcountry Hunters & Anglers collaborated with the Bureau of Land Management Rawlins Field Office to remove one mile of obsolete fencing from the Sullivan grazing allotment in the Shirley Basin, improving wildlife movement and habitat while recycling over 3,000 pounds of steel fencing, with plans for further removals and ongoing partnerships to benefit public lands and wildlife such as mule deer, elk, pronghorn, and sage-grouse.

BLM Colorado is participating in a pilot program to explore approaches for authorizing and managing grazing use. Operators adjust herd movement and size based on year-to-year changes in moisture and growing conditions.

In the fall, sagebrush flowers and goes to seed as temperatures drop and daylight hours shorten. Protein-rich seeds and evergreen sage leaves continue to feed and shield greater sage-grouse.

By late summer, sagebrush rangelands have dried out after many weeks without significant rainfall, and broods of sage-grouse are venturing farther afield.

As the BLM and partners work to reverse decline in greater sage-grouse populations, we also recognize that successful conservation requires thinking about how actions to protect one species may in turn affect others.