Species & Ecosystem Science

	Lead Scientist: Michael A. Schroeder and Matthew Vander Haegen Ecoregions: Columbia Plateau Ecological Systems: Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Steppe, Inter-Mountains Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland, Columbia Plateau Steppe and Grassland, Columbia Basin Foothill and Canyon Dry Grassland, Northern Rocky Mountain Lower Montane - Foothill and Valley Grassland
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	View of a CRP field with a healthy stand of perennial grass and big sagebrush.
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	View of a CRP field with greater sage-grouse tracks in the snow. Grouse regularly used this CRP field during winter for roosting and for feeding on sagebrush.
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	Sage thrasher nest in a CRP field in Douglas County, Washington. CRP fields were readily used by most species of shrubsteppe obligates, depending on the field’s plant composition and configuration with native habitat.
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	Greater sage-grouse regularly nest in CRP fields in Washington. Although they usually nest in fields with shrub cover, they sometimes use fields of solid grass.

Grouse Ecology

Use of lands enrolled in conservation programs by grouse and other species of shrubsteppe wildlife

Project Description

Shrubsteppe was historically the most abundant habitat in the Columbia River Basin of Washington. Declines in abundance and quality of shrubsteppe have coincided with declines in the populations of many species including greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), sage thrashers (Oreoscoptes montanus), and Brewer’s sparrows (Spizella breweri).

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and other conservation programs are currently the largest-scale efforts to restore grassland and shrubsteppe habitat in the Columbia River Basin. Administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these voluntary programs pay farmers to take agricultural lands out of production to achieve conservation objectives including reduced soil erosion and provision of wildlife habitat. In Washington, about 600,000 hectares of converted farmland has been planted to perennial grasses, forbs, and shrubs; this makes up roughly 10% of the state’s total agricultural lands. While not an ideal solution to the problem of declining native habitat, conservation programs have enormous potential to provide habitat for many grassland and shrubsteppe species. The purpose of this avenue of research has been to examine the relationship between wildlife and conservation programs in Washington, focusing primarily on species closely adapted to shrubsteppe habitat.

Key Findings

• Shrubsteppe passerines are benefiting from CRP both through creation of suitable nesting habitat and development of a more contiguous “non-cropland” landscape where CRP adjoins fragments of native shrubsteppe.
• CRP was of most benefit to shrubsteppe-obligate passerines and to greater sage-grouse when it contained sagebrush and was located in a shrubsteppe landscape.
• CRP is providing suitable nesting habitat for some passerine birds and for sage-grouse; those species examined were equally successful at nesting in CRP fields compared to native shrubsteppe.
• CRP appears to be gaining in importance as nesting, brood-rearing, and wintering habitat for sage-grouse in Washington as the sagebrush matures.
• The greater sage-grouse population in north-central Washington, an area with abundant CRP, is one of the few populations in North American that is not declining. The population response appears to correspond to the development of CRP fields into habitat with abundant sagebrush.

What’s New

• Research on conservation programs is continuing with the addition of roughly 25,000 hectares enrolled in the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) program in Douglas County. The SAFE program is similar to CRP except that it is tailored to benefit greater sage-grouse.
• Greater sage-grouse populations are monitored annually so that populations can be examined as a response to farm conservation programs.

Partners

• Farm Services Agency
• Natural Resources Conservation Service

Publications

• Response of greater sage-grouse to the Conservation Reserve Program in Washington State
• Reptile use of shrubsteppe and Conservation Reserve Program habitats in eastern Washington, USA
• Patterns in biological soil crust recovery in Conservation Reserve Program fields, Washington State
• Wildlife on Conservation Reserve Program Lands: A Report to Cooperators
• Use of Conservation Reserve Program fields by greater sage-grouse and other shrubsteppe-associated wildlife in Washington state
• Wildlife on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Lands (2005)
• Wildlife on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Lands (2004)
• Wildlife on Conservation Reserve Program lands and native shrubsteppe in Washington. Progress report: 2004
• Wildlife on Conservation Reserve Program lands and native shrubsteppe in Washington. Progress report: 2003
• Teetering on the edge or too late? Conservation and research issues for avifauna of sagebrush habitats
• Assessing the restoration potential of altered rangeland ecosystems in the Interior Columbia Basin
• Altered rangeland ecosystems in the interior Columbia Basin. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-553
• Landscape changes within the historical distribution of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse in eastern Washington: Is there hope?

All photos unless otherwise indicated are courtesy of Michael A. Schroeder