Does Wyoming’s Core Area Policy Protect Winter Habitats for Greater Sage-Grouse?

Abstract

Conservation reserves established to protect important habitat for wildlife species are used world-wide as a wildlife conservation measure. Effective reserves must adequately protect year-round habitats to maintain wildlife populations. Wyoming's Sage-Grouse Core Area policy was established to protect breeding habitats for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Protecting only one important seasonal habitat could result in loss or degradation of other important habitats and potential declines in local populations. The purpose of our study was to identify the timing of winter habitat use, the extent which individuals breeding in Core Areas used winter habitats, and develop resource selection functions to assess effectiveness of Core Areas in conserving sage-grouse winter habitats in portions of 5 Core Areas in central and north-central Wyoming during winters 2011-2015. We found that use of winter habitats occured over a longer period than current Core Area winter timing stipulations and a substantial amount of winter habitat outside of Core Areas was used by individuals that bred in Core Areas, particularly in smaller Core Areas. Resource selection functions for each study area indicated that sage-grouse were selecting habitats in response to landscapes dominated by big sagebrush and flatter topography similar to other research on sage-grouse winter habitat selection. The substantial portion of sage-grouse locations and predicted probability of selection during winter outside small Core Areas illustrate that winter requirements for sage-grouse are not adequately met by existing Core Areas. Consequently, further considerations for identifying and managing important winter sage-grouse habitats under Wyoming's Core Area Policy are warranted.

Approaches to delineate greater sage‐grouse winter concentration areas

“…Sage‐grouse selected landscapes that were less rugged with warmer aspects dominated by sagebrush. These findings were generally consistent with previous winter sage‐grouse research (Carpenter et al ; Smith et al , ; Holloran et al ; Walker et al ). Sage‐grouse also selected winter habitats closer to leks and in areas with greater breeding densities (as indexed by male lek counts) within 11.1 km of known leks.…”

“…The majority of flocks located in non‐Core Areas were adjacent to relatively smaller Core Areas in south‐central and southwest Wyoming (e.g., the 3,754‐km 2 South Rawlins and 1,030‐km 2 Fontenelle Core Areas), which suggests smaller Core Areas are more likely to have mismatches in protection of different seasonal habitats compared to larger Core Areas (e.g., 19,093‐km 2 Greater South Pass Core Area). This was consistent with patterns of sage‐grouse winter habitat use adjacent to small and large Core Areas in other Wyoming studies (Smith et al , Dinkins et al ) and the mismatch of Core Area protections for summer compared to winter seasons (Dinkins et al ). Therefore, in‐depth assessment of seasonal habitat inclusion will be necessary when designating relatively smaller protected areas.…”

“…These methods largely relied on spatial relationships between female habitat use during nesting and distance to known occupied leks (Holloran and Anderson , Coates et al ). The relationship between population indices and habitat use, however, remains unclear during winter, particularly when individuals and populations display unique movements to wintering areas that are disjunct from breeding habitats (Fedy et al , Smith et al , Pratt et al ). In cases where winter habitats are close to leks, we still lack a clear relationship between relative size of winter flocks and winter resource selection in the absence of intensive telemetry studies.…”

“…Sage‐grouse are a partially migratory species with many individuals within populations using spatially distinct breeding and winter habitats (Connelly et al , Dinkins et al , Pratt et al ). During winter, sage‐grouse generally require large expanses of sagebrush above snow in flatter terrain with few anthropogenic features (Doherty et al ; Carpenter et al ; Dzialak et al ; Smith et al , ; Holloran et al ). The Wyoming Sage‐grouse Executive Order recognized a need to identify areas where sage‐grouse exhibit concentrated winter use (winter concentration areas [WCAs]) because these areas may not have been adequately protected with the Core Area Strategy's focus on breeding habitat.…”

Evaluating interactions between space‐use sharing and defence under increasing density conditions for the group‐territorial Red‐cockaded Woodpecker Leuconotopicus borealis

“…, Smith et al . ). Home‐range shapes can be used to guide local management strategies, such as identifying locations for food supplementation (López‐López et al .…”