Better living through conifer removal: A demographic analysis of sage-grouse vital rates

Severson, John P.; Hagen, Christian A.; Tack, Jason D.; Maestas, Jeremy D.; Naugle, David E.; Forbes, James T.; Reese, Kerry P.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0174347

Cited by 30 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Strong evidence of conifer avoidance across every season and hydrographic area corroborates the findings of other studies (Doherty et al, 2008;Freese, 2009;Severson et al, 2017a) that were focused on fewer sites and specific seasons. Our findings give further weight to the deleterious effects of conifers on sage-grouse and point to conifer management in areas of recent expansion into sagebrush to improve sage-grouse habitat and increase sage-grouse reproductive success (Severson et al, 2017b(Severson et al, , 2017cSeverson, Hagen, Tack, et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage‐grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California

Coates

Brussee

Ricca

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Defining boundaries of species' habitat across broad spatial scales is often necessary for management decisions, and yet challenging for species that demonstrate differential variation in seasonal habitat use. Spatially explicit indices that incorporate temporal shifts in selection can help overcome such challenges, especially for species of high conservation concern. Greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus (hereafter, sage-grouse), a sagebrush obligate species inhabiting the American West, represents an important case study because sage-grouse exhibit seasonal habitat patterns, populations are declining in most portions of their range and are central to contemporary national land use policies. Here, we modeled spatiotemporal selection patterns for telemetered sage-grouse across multiple study sites (1,084 sage-grouse; 30,690 locations) in the Great Basin. We developed broad-scale spatially explicit habitat indices that elucidated space use patterns (spring, summer/fall, and winter) and accounted for regional climatic variation using previously published hydrographic boundaries. We then evaluated differences in selection/avoidance of each habitat characteristic between seasons and hydrographic regions. Most notably, sage-grouse consistently selected areas dominated by sagebrush with few or no conifers but varied in type of sagebrush selected by season and region. Spatiotemporal variation was most apparent based on availability of water resources and herbaceous cover, where sage-grouse strongly selected upland natural springs in xeric regions but selected larger wet meadows in mesic regions. Additionally, during the breeding period in spring, herbaceous cover was selected strongly in the mesic regions. Lastly, we expanded upon an existing joint-index framework by combining seasonal habitat indices with a probabilistic index of sage-grouse abundance and space use to produce habitat maps useful for sage-grouse management. These products can serve as Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Coates PS, Brussee BE, Ricca MA, et al. Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage-grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California. Ecol

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage‐grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California

Coates

Brussee

Ricca

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Our placed-based science for Gunnison sagegrouse provides confidence to local partnerships that effective restoration, already demonstrated for greater sage-grouse (Severson et al 2017b), can be replicated. But ultimate success is contingent on local communities' desire to rally around science in ways they deem socially acceptable and ecologically appropriate (Duvall et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…In a recent experiment with three years post-tree removal, Severson et al (2017a) showed that probability of sage-grouse nesting in newly restored sites increased by 22% annually, and females were 43% more likely to nest near new cuts. Further, researchers in the Great Basin estimated a 25% increase in population growth rate in conifer treatment areas vs. control areas from 2010 to 2014 (Severson et al 2017b). Together, these studies show conifer removal can increase habitat quality for nesting and brooding sagegrouse with potential demographic benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Understanding biological effectiveness before scaling up range‐wide restoration investments for Gunnison sage‐grouse

et al. 2018

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Imperiled species recovery is a high‐stakes endeavor where uncertainty surrounding effectiveness of conservation actions can be an impediment to implementation at necessary scales, especially where habitat restoration is required. Gunnison sage‐grouse (Centrocercus minimus) represents one such species in need of large‐scale habitat restoration. It is a federally threatened sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) obligate bird with a limited range in Colorado and Utah. Threats to recovery of Gunnison sage‐grouse include conifer expansion into sagebrush along with additional habitat loss and degradation attributed to human development and agricultural conversion. Recovery of Gunnison sage‐grouse and other sensitive species can be aided by spatial tools that forecast plausible outcomes of conservation actions. We illustrate this by using a novel framework for predicting outcomes of proactive tree removal and subsequent sagebrush restoration for the Gunnison sage‐grouse. To assess threats on Gunnison sage‐grouse lek presence, we developed a spatially explicit breeding habitat model to compare active lek and random pseudo‐absence locations from 2015. Models identified land cover, climatic, and abiotic variables at landscape‐level scales (0.56 and 4 km) most important for predicting breeding habitat. Our model correctly differentiated between lek and pseudo‐absence locations 94% of the time. All but one of the active leks (n = 94) were in areas with >0.65 probability of lek occurrence. Using this probability value as a threshold, we predicted 15% of the current grouse range as high‐quality breeding habitat. Simulated removal of trees in areas with ≤30% tree canopy cover (0.56‐km scale) increased extent of high‐quality habitat fourfold (59%). Hypothetical restoration of sagebrush cover in the same areas increased habitat quality an additional 11%. Our breeding habitat model indicated that targeted tree removal and sagebrush restoration have potential to improve Gunnison sage‐grouse breeding habitat. While our habitat treatment scenarios were not meant to be prescriptive, they highlight that considerable uplift in Gunnison sage‐grouse breeding habitat may be possible across much of its range with cooperation from multiple stakeholders and illustrates the utility of this approach for predicting biological return on investment.

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“…Given the importance of female survival, nest success, and chick survival to sage-grouse population demographics (Taylor et al 2011), improving existing breeding, nesting, and early brood-rearing habitats by creating more usable space around leks is now an elevated conservation priority (Frey et al 2013, Sandford 2016, SGI 2016, Severson et al 2017a. Removing conifer cover around existing breeding habitat may increase lek persistence (Baruch-Mordo et al 2013, see also Aldridge et al 2008), nesting habitat availability and space use (Sandford et al 2017, Severson et al 2017a, and potentially bird abundance (Commons et al 1999, Severson et al 2017c.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Next‐generation restoration for sage‐grouse: a framework for visualizing local conifer cuts within a landscape context

et al. 2017

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. 2017. Next-generation restoration for sage-grouse: a framework for visualizing local conifer cuts within a landscape context. Ecosphere 8 (7): e01888. 10.1002/ecs2.1888Abstract. The expansion of coniferous trees into sagebrush ecosystems is a major driver of habitat loss and fragmentation, resulting in negative impacts to wildlife. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) respond directly to conifer expansion through decreased breeding activity, nesting, and overall survival; thus, small amounts of conifer expansion can have significant impacts on sage-grouse habitat and populations. To this end, conservation partners have collaborated across private and public lands to reduce the threat of conifer expansion through targeted removal of conifer trees. Here, we demonstrate the use of the Marxan framework to incorporate important ecosystem attributes in the prioritization of conifer removal within the Oregon range of sage-grouse. We prioritized conifer removal relative to three separate goals: (1) enhancement of existing sage-grouse breeding, nesting, and early brood-rearing habitats; (2) facilitation of sage-grouse movement between breeding and brood-rearing habitats; and (3) improvement of connectivity among sage-grouse priority areas for conservation (PACs). Optimization models successfully identified areas with low conifer canopy cover, high resilience and resistance to wildfire and annual grass invasion, and high bird abundance to enhance sage-grouse habitat. The inclusion of mesic resources resulted in further prioritization of areas that were closer to such resources, but also identified potential pathways that connected breeding habitats to the late brood-rearing habitats associated with mesic areas. Examining areas outside of PACs resulted in the selection of potential corridors to facilitate connectivity; although areas with low conifer cover were selected similarly to the other optimization models, areas with high cover were also chosen to be able to enhance connectivity. Areas identified by optimization models were largely consistent with and overlapped ongoing conifer removal efforts in the Warner Mountains of south-central Oregon. Land ownership of preferential areas selected by models varied with priority goals and followed general ownership patterns of the region, with public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and private lands being selected the most. The increased availability of landscape-level datasets and assessment tools in sagebrush ecosystems can reduce the time and cost of both planning and implementation of habitat projects involving conifer removal. Most importantly, incorporating these new datasets and tools can supplement expert-based knowledge to maximize benefits to sagebrush and sage-grouse conservation.

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Better living through conifer removal: A demographic analysis of sage-grouse vital rates

Cited by 30 publications

References 47 publications

Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage‐grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California

Spatially explicit models of seasonal habitat for greater sage‐grouse at broad spatial scales: Informing areas for management in Nevada and northeastern California

Understanding biological effectiveness before scaling up range‐wide restoration investments for Gunnison sage‐grouse

Next‐generation restoration for sage‐grouse: a framework for visualizing local conifer cuts within a landscape context

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