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Habitat Information

Currently, Greater sage-grouse are found in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, eastern California, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and occupy approximately 56 percent of their historical range.

The birds are found at elevations ranging from 4,000 to over 9,000 feet and are highly dependent on sagebrush for cover and food.

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ESA Protection

After a thorough analysis of the best available scientific information, the Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that the greater sage-grouse warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, the Service has determined that proposing the species for protection is precluded by the need to take action on other species facing more immediate and severe extinction threats.

As a result, the Greater sage-grouse will be placed on the list of species that are candidates for Endangered Species Act Protection. The Service will review the status of the species annually, as it does with all candidate species, and will propose the species for protection when funding and workload priorities for other listing actions allow.

Evidence suggests that habitat fragmentation and destruction across much of the species’ range has contributed to significant population declines over the past century. If current trends persist, many local populations may disappear in the next several decades, with the remaining fragmented population vulnerable to extinction.

However, the sage-grouse population as a whole remains large enough and is distributed across such a large portion of the western United States that the needs of other species facing more immediate and severe threat of extinction must take priority.

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Conservation Objectives Team

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is making available a final report that is designed to help guide the efforts of the States and other partners to conserve the Greater sage-grouse with a landscape level strategy. The report, prepared by state and federal scientists and sage-grouse experts, identifies the conservation status of the sage-grouse, the nature of the threats facing the species, and objectives to ensure its long-term conservation.

To view the report, please click here

• Press Release: March 25, 2013 FWS Releases Report to Help Guide Sage-Grouse Conservation Objectives (PDF)
• Questions and Answers
• Greater Sage-Grouse Priority Areas for Conservation (PACs) Map

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Recent Actions

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making available a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and a draft umbrella conservation agreement to augment ongoing efforts to enhance the abundance and distribution of the greater sage-grouse throughout its historical range in Wyoming. The purpose of the umbrella conservation agreement, known as a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA), is to encourage landowners to voluntarily implement conservation measures to conserve, restore, or enhance habitat for the greater sage-grouse on non-Federal lands in Wyoming. In return, participating landowners and land managers would receive regulatory assurances concerning land use restrictions that might otherwise apply to them should the greater sage-grouse become protected under the ESA.

• Federal Register Notice: February 7, 2013 Draft Greater Sage-Grouse Umbrella Candidate Conservation Agreement With Assurances for Wyoming Ranch Management, and Environmental Assessment (PDF)
• Press Release: February 7, 2013 Environmental Assessment and Draft Greater Sage-grouse Umbrella Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for Wyoming Ranch Management
• Draft Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances
• Draft Environmental Assessment

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Background Information on Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation

Primer 1 A Beginner's Guide to Greater Sage-Grouse
Primer 2 An Overview of Agencies, Organizations, and Individuals Working to Conserve Greater Sage-Grouse
Primer 3 Mapping Priority Habitats for Greater Sage-Grouse
Primer 4 An Overview of Current Endangered Species Act Activities for Greater Sage-Grouse

Also included in this finding are two additional and related actions: (1) whether there is a western subspecies of greater sage-grouse; and (2) if the sage-grouse populations in the Bi-State area of California and Nevada quality as Distinct Population Segments (DPS) and if they warrant listing.

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Additional Resources

• Federal Register Notice March 5, 2010: 12-Month Findings for Petitions to List the Greater Sage- Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as Threatened or Endangered
• News Release March 5, 2010: Interior Expands Common-Sense Initiative to Conserve Sage Grouse Habitat in the West
• Factsheet Regarding the Status Review Finding
• Questions and Answers Regarding the Status Review
• Powerpoint Presentation (Science and Research)
  This presentation is intended to provide basic public information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 12-month finding for the greater sage-grouse, conducted pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. It is not a comprehensive treatment of the finding or an exhaustive analysis of the species' status. Please refer to the actual published finding for the complete body of work and information related to the status of the species throughout its range.

Video clips of male breeding behavior

• Video (b-roll)
• Short video - Greater Sage Grouse

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Archives

More information can be found at the Service's ECOS webpage

2008

• Federal Register Notice: February 26, 2008 Initiation of Status Review for the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as Threatened or Endangered
• Press Release: February 26, 2008 Fish and Wildlife Service to Conduct Status Review of Greater Sage-Grouse
• Greataer Sage-Grouse Population Trends: An Analysis of Lek Count Databases 1965 - 2007 July 2007

2005

• Press Release: January 7, 2005, Greater Sage-Grouse Not Warranted for Listing
• Federal Register Notice: January 12, 2005, 12-Month Finding for Petitions To List the Greater Sage- Grouse as Threatened or Endangered
• Questions and Answers
• Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-Grouse and Sagebrush Habitats - provided by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Report by Steven Knick and John Connelly

2004

• Press Release: April 16, 2004 Service to Initiate a Status Review of the Greater Sage-Grouse
• Federal Register Notice: April 16, 2004 90-Day Finding for Petitions to List the Greater Sage-Grouse as Threatened or Endangered
• Questions and Answers
• Chart of the petition process
• Summary of Sage-Grouse Petitions Submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Sage-Grouse Taxonomy
• Sage-Grouse Range Map 2000
• Press Release: January 5, 2004 Petition to List Eastern Sage-Grouse Not Warranted
• Federal Register Notice: January 7, 2004 90-Day Finding for a Petition to List the Eastern Subspecies of the Greater Sage-Grouse as Endangered

2003

• Federal Register Notice: February 7, 2003 90-Day Finding on a Petition to List the Western Sage-Grouse

2002

• Press Release: December 30, 2002 Service Determines Mono Basin Area Sage-Grouse Does Not Warrant Emergency Protection of ESA
• Federal Register Notice:December 26, 2002 90-Day Finding on a Petition to List the Mono Basin Area Sage-Grouse

2001

• Press Release: May 2, 2001 Service Finds Listing of Western Sage-Grouse in Columbia Basin Warranted, But Precluded
• Federal Register Notice:May 7, 2001 12-Month Finding for a Petition to List the Washington Population of Western Sage-Grouse

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