Our work in the sagebrush ecosystem is focused on bringing together the science, technology, people, and tools to keep our lands, people, animals, and water system healthy. Our projects are focused on safeguarding precious water resources and areas threatened by invasive annual grasses, wildlife, and encroaching conifers. We protect these resources by building partnerships and networks to work in tandem to conserve high-quality "core sagebrush areas" that have high value and priority. Our approach is to collaborate with agencies, Tribes, private landowners, and nongovernmental organizations to sustain our communities, economy, and environment.
What We Do
Our Services
We work alongside other agencies, partners, non-profits, Tribes, landowners, programs, and the public to strategize, fund, and collaborate on sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.
Learn more about sagebrush conservation. Individual state fish and wildlife agencies have been, and continue to be, central to the implementation of work in sagebrush.
The Sagebrush Ecosystem is one of several programs that is receiving investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President’s America the Beautiful initiative.
Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that helps local, state, and Tribal communities tackle the climate crisis and environmental restoration needs while creating jobs and boosting local economies.
Our Projects and Initiatives
For decades, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has worked in lockstep with state, federal, nongovernmental, Tribal nations, private landowners, and many other partners to restore and conserve the sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.
Learn more about sagebrush ecosystem. The overarching goal of this constellation of partners is to maintain healthy, working sagebrush landscapes for people and wildlife. Through co-produced science, technical transfer, and on-the-ground project delivery, this West-wide coalition has invested heavily in voluntary actions to conserve sagebrush habitat and reduce regulatory risk for industries operating in sagebrush country.
Most recently, pursuant to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Partners for Fish and Wildlife Act, as well as other Service authorities and programs, the Service’s Regions 1, 6 and 8 have collaborated with a diverse suite of partners, including the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the US Department of Agriculture, to develop the Sagebrush Conservation Design. The SCD is a public-facing tool that efficiently prioritizes conservation investment in sagebrush cores to achieve the highest return on that investment. Building on the larger “Defend and Grow the Core” strategy developed by the Western Governors Association, the Service and our partners have used the SDC to target and deliver nearly $40 million in strategic, on-the-ground conservation projects, many of which our partners have leveraged 3:1 on the federal dollar. These projects, which are supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President’s America the Beautiful initiative.
Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other sources, combat invasives and fire, manage encroaching conifer trees, and enhance water resources on both private and public lands, with an emphasis on working rangelands, including multi-generational livestock ranches and the adjacent public lands on which those operations depend. These projects also directly benefit ongoing state-led efforts to identify and maintain wildlife migration corridors for big game populations and other partner priorities, create valuable jobs for local restoration contractors, and provide technical assistance to Tribes working to protect community water resources.
Conservation practitioners working in sagebrush and grassland ecosystems can access tools, spatial data, and other resources using an ArcGIS Online platform: the Grassland & Sagebrush Conservation Portal.
Sagebrush Landscape Collaborative
The Department of the Interior’s bureaus and offices are working together with Tribal, state and private partners to implement a “Defend the Core, Grow the Core” approach, utilizing the Sagebrush Conservation Design, to maximize efficiency and coordination and deliver effective conservation. This approach focuses first on defending intact cores of sagebrush that provide essential ecosystem services to people and wildlife, including desirable forage for domestic livestock, the availability of critical water supplies in otherwise dry environments, and habitat for migrating and wintering big game. The approach also focuses on growing those core areas outward by restoring more degraded areas – a two-pronged effort that will help maintain healthy Western landscapes and identify additional opportunities for landscape-scale restoration investments. To implement the approach, the Sagebrush Landscape Collaborative will make strategic restoration investments from across the Department’s bureaus and offices in identified “Sagebrush Collaborative Restoration Landscapes.” Read more here: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/land-management-research-program/science/sagebrush-landscape-collaborative
Find a Sagebrush Restoration Project Near You
Explore the Data Dashboard for FY22, FY23, FY24, and FY25 Projects
The Grassland & Sagebrush Conservation Portal is an ArcGIS Online platform that provides access to maps, apps, data, documents, and other resources for practitioners working in grassland and sagebrush biomes.
Work With Us
By anchoring conservation in Core Sagebrush Areas, the Service and its partners can focus on working proactively, efficiently, and effectively through the “Defend the Core, Grow the Core” approach endorsed by the Western Governors Association, the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, US Department of Agriculture, and a growing number of partners working across the West. Targeting cores with conservation actions is far more effective than conservation actions conducted across dispersed geographies. Using updated maps to defend the core from invasive annual grasses, we can target where to maintain sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.
Learn more about sagebrush , improve it by treating weeds, or say “no” to investments where change is unlikely and preventatively expensive.
The science and management tools of the “Defend and Growth the Core” strategy are communicated through a multi-partner website, The Sagebrush Conservation Gateway. This online resource delves into the science of how, where, and why public and private partners are deploying the Sagebrush Conservation Design to conserve the sagebrush biome. The website offers plain-language summaries, key findings, and media including interviews with sagebrush scientists and conservation practitioners. Learn more at: SagebrushConservation.org
We work alongside partners to build collaborative conservation that sustains rural economies and reduces wildfire risk through an ecosystem-focused and proactive conservation approach: “Defend and Grow the Core.” Key partners include:
- The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies: https://wafwa.org/initiatives/sci/
- USDA-NRCS Working Lands for Wildlife: https://www.wlfw.org/landscapes/sagebrush/#sagebrushframework
- Other DOI Bureaus: https://www.partnersinthesage.com/partnerships-action/
- University of Wyoming Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems (IMAGINE): https://www.invasivegrasses.com/tech-transfer