Bigger chicken with sage. Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Picture: USFWS. HARNEY COUNTY, OR- In 2014, ranchers in Harney County, Oregon, signed a Dessa Conservation With Insurance Agreement (CCAA) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to preserve more than one million hectares of private range to protect the largest sage chicken and its sage brosse habitat. Two other upcoming agreements will provide voluntary protection to all non-federal sage chicken habitats in Oregon, which will protect both birds and ranchers. Watch the video “A Bigger Sage Chicken for Women in the Lek, near Bodie, California. Image: Jeannie Stafford/USFS MISSOULA, MT – Over the past five years, the Sage Grouse initiative has worked with more than 1,120 ranches to maintain more than 6,000 square kilometres of sage chicken habitat in 11 Western states. More than 75% of these hectares are located in priority conservation areas designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
This means that these investments benefit large populations of sage chickens and hundreds of other wildlife, including major economic big game such as kites, tree cones and moose. It is a recipe for success that pays off in the West. This year, the USDA has committed to invest an additional $200 million in farm bill to ensure that this remarkable venture continues until at least 2018. “Success on the Range,” a new SGI report, captures the set and explains how this new conservation paradigm is gaining a foothold. Read more “The BLM is responsible for managing about half of the rest of the chicken`s sage habitat. After years of inactivity and triggered by a 2011 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the bird for protection under the Endangered Fish Species Act, the BLM has launched a sage chicken protection plan. Sage chicken needs large tracts of healthy sage brush habitat. Unfortunately, invasive weeds, agricultural processing, energy development and other threats humiliate the dry landscape that chicken calls home.
Learn more about the sage brush steppe, the wildlife that lives there and how important it is to our Western heritage here. Read more >> PORTLAND, OR – Governor John Kitzhaber`s top natural resource official urged the Bureau of Land Management to strengthen protections for greater sage-grouse in the final Resource Management Plan to help keep the bird off of the Endangered Species List in comments submitted to the Federal agency. This five-year effort, led by the Ministry of the Interior, resulted in land use plans, with new measures to protect the bird. The Fish and Wildlife Service`s decision not to call the largest sage chicken a risk was based on the assumption that public land management plans would be implemented and reverse the decline of chicken. HELENA, MT – An agreement signed today by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and the head of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service will streamline efforts to preserve private workspaces that provide habitat for sage chicken. “Nearly two-thirds of the sage chicken habitat in Montana is located on private land, which is why a voluntary and targeted conservation effort is important,” said Jason Weller, CEO of NRCS. “The decisions made every day by Western ranchers and other private landowners on what to do on their land will continue to have a decisive influence on sage chicken.” Read more ELKO, NV- Fearscapes, Hen-Bots, cryogenic thermal imaging cameras and many other state-of-the-art research projects have attracted the country`s leading sage chicken experts for the 29th Western Agencies Sage and Columbian-tailed Grouse Workshop June 16-19 in northeastern Nevada.