Just like in sage grouse country, the recipe for success to save the lesser prairie-chicken (an iconic grassland bird of the southern Great Plains) is investing in proactive, collaborative conservation efforts on private lands.

In the West’s sagebrush sea, most of the plant matter grows below your feet — just like an upside-down forest. SGI is releasing a new poster and postcard that show the importance of promoting healthy, diverse native plants and conserving our western roots.

Pat and Sharon O’Toole make their living by ranching on the sagebrush sea along the Wyoming-Colorado border. They raise sheep and cattle, sage grouse and trout, as well as children and grandchildren on their Ladder Ranch. Read more here.

Today, the Sage Grouse Initiative is unveiling a new layer on our interactive web application that shows where the risk of cropland conversion is highest. The new “cultivation risk map” layer predicts where future sagebrush habitat loss could occur based on soils, climate, and topography of existing croplands.

By Sean Whaley | “We’re ‘all in’ to make a difference for this bird over the long term,” said Thad Heater, Sage Grouse Initiative’s national coordinator, in this recent Las Vegas Review-Journal article.

Conifer encroachment spells bad news for birds that need intact, wide open spaces–sage grouse and lesser prairie-chickens included. This new report released by our partner, the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative, explains why.

A new resource released by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will help private and public land managers work collaboratively to get ahead of the curve and reduce risks from megafires using fuel breaks. Large-scale wildfires are one of the greatest threats to sage grouse and sagebrush ecosystems in the West.

by Catherine Wightman | Ranchers manage their land to sustain grass production, which benefits bovines and birds on Montana’s agricultural Hi-Line.