Session: Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative: Citizen Stewardship for the Conservation of the Sagebrush Biome and Sage Grouse


Tuesday, August 7, 2007: 11:30 AM-1:15 PM
Almaden Blrm II, San Jose Hilton
Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative: Citizen Stewardship for the Conservation of the Sagebrush Biome and Sage Grouse
The Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative (CSI) is a national partnership of landowners, public land users, communities, local working groups, conservation groups, industries, and tribal, state, and federal agencies established to conserve, enhance, and restore the western sagebrush biome. Prioritized conservation actions will be consistent with strategic priorities identified by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Greater Sage-Grouse Comprehensive Conservation Strategy and will work through or consult with local working groups. Actions may result in the generation of conservation credits that may be traded through a banking approach. CSI partners are collaborating in the development of a protocol to allow for the ecological valuation of credits at multiple scales of analysis. This ecological valuation incorporates the approach of the USFWS Habitat Evaluation Protocol methodology and relies upon NRCS ecological site descriptions for consistent stratification of credits across the landscape. Conservation treatments will be monitored for vegetative and vertebrate response so as to support an adaptive management approach to modify both evaluative protocols as well as future conservation actions.