Greater sage-grouse conservation is urgent. Once seen in great numbers across sagebrush landscapes of the West, sage-grouse have declined in number over the past one hundred years because of the loss, degradation, and fragmentation of sagebrush habitats essential for their survival.  Greater sage-grouse now occupy only about 56% of the habitat that was available to them before the arrival of settlers of European descent.  

States manage all resident wildlife, including sage-grouse, through their respective wildlife management divisions or departments. Federal agencies such as the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service are responsible for managing habitat on the lands under their respective jurisdictions. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service started a special Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) in 2010 to implement conservation practices on private lands achieving sage grouse conservation through sustainable agriculture. Local governments, Tribal governments and private landowners or administrators also play an important role managing wildlife and habitat.

Sage-grouse benefit from and make use of suitable habitat regardless of its ownership and management responsibility, so it is important that all stakeholders be engaged in any conservation effort.

The BLM's Role

As the steward of more than half of all remaining sagebrush habitat in the United States, ranging up to 47 million acres of land if you include buffered lek locations, the BLM is playing a leading role in developing and implementing land management actions to conserve the sage-grouse.

Maintaining and restoring sagebrush landscapes on public lands is the BLM's primary means of conserving sage-grouse populations and one of its most important current programs. The BLM is working in partnership with its sister agencies and the Western states to develop new or revised approaches to sage-grouse conservation through land-use plans. Working with our partners, we will use these land use plans to implement actions range-wide so we can conserve and restore the greater sage-grouse and its habitat on BLM lands over the short term and the long term. 

Greater Sage-Grouse and Wildland Fire

Wildfires are a leading cause of sagebrush habitat loss, and the BLM is addressing the effects of wildland fire on sage-grouse habitat by taking appropriate action before and during wildfires.  The BLM’s aim is to limit the damage from unwanted wildfires in sagebrush habitat by thorough planning before a fire, prompt action during the fire, and effective rehabilitation of a burned area after the fire.  To learn more about what the BLM is doing to address wildfire in greater sage-grouse habitat, click here.  For more details on BLM’s wildland firefighting policy in greater sage-grouse habitat, read our Instructional Memorandum.