Sustainable development and the great sage-grouse

Abstract

The invasion of non-native grasses, pinyon-juniper encroachment, drought and climate change have resulted in larger, more intense fires in the western United States’ sagebrush-steppe ecosystem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified these factors as the primary threat to sagebrush obligate species, particularly the endemic greater sage-grouse. A large portion of primary sage-grouse conservation areas reside on the U.S. Department of the Interior federal lands. In 2015, the DOI issued Secretarial Order 3336 that directed the development of a comprehensive science-based strategy to reduce the threat of large-scale rangeland fires to greater sage-grouse habitat and the sage-steppe ecosystem. This study reports the results of using the STARFire planning and budgeting system to respond to Section 7(b) iii-Fuels, Action Item #4 of the secretarial order. This study demonstrates the capabilities of STARFire to apply the latest science and technology using a risk-based approach to conduct a wildfire risk analysis and improve the targeting of fuels reduction programs on a landscape-scale study across the Northern Great Basin of the United States.