- Next Meeting: Feb. 6, 2009 at 10 am in the Randolph Senior Center. RSVP to Todd Black 435-770-9302 or todd.black@usu.edu
Local Working Group (LWG) meetings are held quarterly. Unless otherwise noted the RICH CRM LWG meets during the following months:
February meeting—at this meeting participants:
1-review and report on implemented actions and strategies for the previous year
2-discuss and plan lek count/search needs
3-schedule, coordinate and plan summer events
May/June
August meeting—at this meeting participants:
1-plan, discuss, and coordinate various actions and strategies
2-state wide/range wide sage-grouse issues
3-report on any LWG sage-grouse research
1-review and revise the LWG plan
2-schedule, coordinate and plan
To be placed on mailing list and or for specific meeting location and times please contact: Todd A. Black
Rich County Sage-grouse Conservation Plan
A note about the Rich County sage-grouse plan:. This is an adaptive plan, it will be reviewed annually and therefore is likely to be amended, changed, updated, and reported upon but it will not be ignored and just put on the shelf as a monumental accomplishment of those involved.
DRAFT 1 Sage-grouse Conservation Plan 2006
Reports and Publications
- 2006-7 Accomplishment Report; Rich County Section
Minutes
Greater Sage-Grouse Response To Sagebrush
Manipulations In
The alteration of sagebrush ecosystems through agricultural conversion, drought, fire, invasive species, and urban and commercial development has led to an increased interest in the management of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in recent years. To better manage sage-grouse populations, many land and wildlife management agencies have begun treating sagebrush with herbicide, machinery, and fire. The intent of these treatments is to reduce sagebrush canopy cover and increase the density of grass and forb species, thus providing higher quality sage-grouse brood rearing habitat. However, monitoring of sage-grouse response to such treatments has often been lacking or non-existent. The objective of this study is to determine the response of sage-grouse to sagebrush treatments in Rich County, Utah.
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Our study area will focus on two locations in Rich County, Utah. The first, Duck Creek, is a 95km² grazing allotment in the north end of
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| A pellet cluster with fecal and cecal pellets |
GPS radio-telemetry will be used to verify sage-grouse use of treatments. We will locate sage-grouse approximately four times per day to get a robust measure of use through time. Vegetation measurements will be taken at known locations of sage-grouse use, which we will obtain from our telemetry data. We will use line-intercept, Daubenmire and Wiens pole techniques to measure vegetation. We will use vegetation and sage-grouse location data to build habitat association models for sage-grouse in
This research will help managers to understand the effects that sagebrush treatments have on sage-grouse habitat use. Our study will allow managers and researchers to determine which methods are most effective and least expensive for sage-grouse monitoring. In addition, this project can be a guide for land owners and managers when planning future sagebrush treatments for sage-grouse.
Bio
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