When Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) range conservationist Mandi Hirsch heads out into the sagebrush from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Lander, Wyoming, she represents not one agency but six partners.

Eastern Montana rancher Bill Milton is pleased to see a new sodsaver provision in the Farm Bill of 2014, signed by the President today. He runs a grass-fed cattle operation near Roundup, that’s on the edge of important habitat for sage grouse.

U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell and other top officials saw the Sage Grouse Initiative partnership in action at the Bord Gulch Ranch, NW Colorado.

The next time you hunt a big mule deer buck in Wyoming, you might want to thank a sage grouse.
That’s because a major initiative to conserve sage grouse populations in the West is having beneficial impacts on other game as well—especially mule deer. The Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI)

“This is as good as it gets. We’re quite proud of it. Unless you have something to hide, there’s nothing to be scared of. Because in the end, the resource will show what’s there,” Brackett says.

Sage grouse and wetland habitats are conserved together along with the future of a working ranch in Northwest Colorado. The closing of the Coyte Ranch conservation easement this week is a landmark achievement. It is a story of vision, tragedy, persistence, and optimism for the future of the great places of the Intermountain West.

Ray Owens is a ranch manager of the Bord Gulch Ranch, north of Craig, Colorado, in Moffat County. He may also be one of the most vigilant observers of sagebrush land, and an innovator who constantly searches for ways to improve the ranch for wildlife and livestock.

The state’s first fence-marking partnership project to prevent sage grouse collisions started not in Ekalaka, but another hour and a half drive from there into a vast sea of sage.

“It is important to preserve and maintain the history of the area and the legacy of the cattle. The only way to protect the land is to not put houses on it.” – Mark Lacey, rancher (from ESLT website)

Conservation enhancements directly linked to the SGI field staff working one-on-one with landowners have crossed the million acre mark.