San Juan County

Please Note:  SWOG is currently known as the: MONTICELLO/DOVE CREEK GUNNISON SAGE-GROUSE LOCAL WORKING GROUP

  • SWOG meets 3 times per year. For more details contact Jim Keyes at 435-587-3239.
  • Anticipated Meeting Schedule for 2008: TBA
  • Chairs: Bruce Adams

 

San Juan County Conservation Plan

San Juan County (SWOG) Conservation Plan

Annual Reports and Research Results

 

  •  Thesis by Sharon Ward (2007) Gunnison Sage-grouse Winter and Summer Ecology in San Juan County, Utah. Utah State University.
  • Thesis by Sarah Lupis (2005) Summer Ecology of Gunnison Sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) in San Juan County, Utah.  Utah State University. 

  • Article by Sarah Lupis, Terry Messmer and Todd Black (2006) Gunnison Sage-grouse Use of conservation Reserve Program Fields in Utah and Response to Emergency Grazing: A Preliminary Evaluation.  Wildlife Society Bulletin 34(4):957-962. 

 

Minutes:

In 2006, the group reformed, combining the existing local working groups in Monticello and Dove Creek into one

Figure 1. Photo of sprinkler irrigation system used to create mesic habitats in Conservation Reserve Program and native rangeland, San Juan County, Utah 2007.
organization. Partners in the group include USUEXT, Colorado State University Extension, Utah Division of Wildlife, Colorado Division of Wildlife, BLM, USFS, UFBF, San Juan County Extension, San Juan County, and The Nature Conservancy. The group has been working towards meeting objectives outlined in the Rangewide Plan for Gunnison Sage-grouse and has been reporting on their activities, prioritizing strategies and actions, and ranking threats identified in that document. USUEXT, the UDWR, the BLM, and several private landowners in Utah are working together on a flagship projects evaluating three specific conservation strategies that have been identified in the Rangewide Conservation Plan, the San Juan County
Figure 2. Photo of “firefly” perch deterrent mounted on a utility pole to discourage raptor perching, Raptor Perch Deterrent Study, San Juan County Utah, 2007.
Plan, and the Dove Creek Plan. These strategies include: 1) the role of irrigation in creating mesic or wet meadow environments in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and native sagebrush rangelands on sage-grouse productivity potentials as measured by changes in vegetation structure and composition, arthropod abundance and diversity, and bird use; 2) the role of dormant season cattle grazing of CRP and native sagebrush rangeland on vegetation diversity, arthropod abundance, and sage-grouse use; and 3) the effectiveness of perch discouragers installed on vertical structures to reduce or eliminate perching sites for potential grouse avian predators, such as raptors and corvids.

 

Figure 3. Photo of “triangles” mounted on a utility pole to discourage raptor perching, Raptor Perch Deterrent Study, San Juan County, Utah 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Phoebe Prather, a PhD student at Utah State University (USU), began work on these projects in 2007 and work will continue through 2009. Phoebe is originally from Lone Pine, California and received her BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz.