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.