Cooperators/Partners

This project is truly a cooperative effort among the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center’s Snake River Field Station, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and state agencies. Each entity has contributed data layers within their respective area of management responsibility. The final product, a network server capable of providing spatial data sets across the World Wide Web, resides andis maintained at the Snake River Field Station. Our collaboration augments current mapping efforts, increase the capabilities for large-scale analysis of habitat and population trends, and provide spatial data to all researchers and managers for sage grouse and shrubsteppe regions. All western states have participated in the project by providing datasets and GIS assistance.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management: District Offices and Resource Areas in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management contain significant information on habitat quality, fire history, and land management actions (seedings, fencings, and grazing allotments). In addition, various mapping efforts are underway by the BLM through the Fuels and Fire Management Program and the GIS Division. These mapping efforts are critical to understanding sagebrush steppe systems and detecting habitat trends relative to disturbance such as agriculture and wildfire.

USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Snake River Field Station: The Snake River Field Station provided expertise in GIS mapping, accuracy testing, and future applications, such as modeling habitat selection. The Field Station also has the lead responsibility for coordinating the data collection and development of the network server.