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9/26/2018 | 11:10 AM - 11:25 AM | Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush Within burns: Evaluating Habitat Selection Outcomes for Sage-Grouse | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium

Planting and Restoring Functional Sagebrush Within burns: Evaluating Habitat Selection Outcomes for Sage-Grouse

Fire could drastically reduce sage-grouse habitat and result in the local extirpation and regional fragmentation of Greater sage-grouse populations in Nevada. Although efforts to revegetate burned or altered areas have occurred in the past, we know little about how sagebrush can be restored to support sage-grouse demography, persistence, and habitat use. To evaluate the efficacy of sagebrush restoration approaches and success in creating functional sage-grouse habitat in post-fire landscapes, we compared expected changes in seasonal sage-grouse habitat selection among alternative sagebrush transplant designs. We developed a spatial vegetation transition modeling framework to simulate a burn and remove vegetation from the landscape. We re-grew vegetation components relevant to sage-grouse habitat selection in alternative sagebrush transplant designs that varied in planting effort and configuration. We annually re-calculated habitat selection surfaces to reflect vegetation dynamics and sage-grouse habitat selection preferences. Results indicate that the amount of planting effort, patch size, and seedling mortality are key factors influencing times to habitat use and recovery. Planting densities and spatial targeting around nesting areas had a lesser influences on broad-scale habitat selection than overall planting effort. Common patch sizes for restoration plots may support only a few birds and have limited influence on landscape-scale habitat selection. Large patch sizes and high replanting effort may be required for sage-grouse to recolonize abandoned habitat. Subsequent evaluations will simulate individual interactions with habitat and explore the influences of behavior and demography on habitat use and population outcomes.

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Presenters/Authors

Julie Heinrichs (), Colorado State University, Julie.Heinrichs@colostate.edu;