The NRCS Chief explains how the Sage Grouse Initiative has become a model for voluntary, incentive-based conservation at its best over the past 5 years.

Recent conservation easements in Montana help maintain the sage-grouse’s longest-known migration corridor between the U.S. and Canada.

Cooperative projects like this water delivery design with Jay Yust help both ranchers and wildlife thrive on the Colorado range.

A colossal voluntary effort is keeping the Intermountain West’s sagebrush steppe intact, which protects one of the highest density populations of greater sage grouse range-wide.

South Dakota Rancher Ron Steineke makes water delivery and grazing improvements that benefit his cattle along with sage grouse and other wildlife.

Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. John Hickenlooper praise voluntary conservation that’s keeping working ranches and the state’s prime sage grouse habitat intact. The new conservation easement on Cross Mountain Ranch in NW Colorado is part of a broader conservation strategy linking together this important landscape.

The Swickard family takes pride in a pasture to plate operation. Their natural beef customers support a ranch dedicated to healthy cattle and plentiful wildlife, with a focus on sage grouse on property near Susanville, California

Big Sky Journal’s Winter Edition- 2014, features a Sage Grouse Initiative Rancher Success Story. Meet Deb and Mike Delaney. (a version of this article first appeared in Beef Magazine):

The Sage Grouse Initiative is wrapping up 2014 with rancher stories that bring life to the statistics of success on the ground.

Bi-State (Nevada/California) sage grouse thrive on Masini Ranch, participants in Sage Grouse Initiative conservation easements and enhancements.