Greater sage‐grouse respond positively to intensive post‐fire restoration treatments

Abstract

Habitat loss is the most prevalent threat to biodiversity in North America. One of the most threatened landscapes in the United States is the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem, much of which has been fragmented or converted to non‐native grasslands via the cheatgrass‐fire cycle. Like many sagebrush obligates, greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) depend upon sagebrush for food and cover and are affected by changes to this ecosystem. We investigated habitat selection by 28 male greater sage‐grouse during each of 3 years after a 113,000‐ha wildfire in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Idaho and Oregon. During the study period, seeding and herbicide treatments were applied for habitat restoration. We evaluated sage‐grouse responses to vegetation and post‐fire restoration treatments. Throughout the 3 years post‐fire, sage‐grouse avoided areas with high exotic annual grass cover but selected strongly for recovering sagebrush and moderately strongly for perennial grasses. By the third year post‐fire, they preferred high‐density sagebrush, especially in winter when sagebrush is the primary component of the sage‐grouse diet. Sage‐grouse preferred forb habitat immediately post‐fire, especially in summer, but this selection preference was less strong in later years. They also selected areas that were intensively treated with herbicide and seeded with sagebrush, grasses, and forbs, although these responses varied with time since treatment. Wildfire can have severe consequences for sagebrush‐obligate species due to loss of large sagebrush plants used for food and for protection from predators and thermal extremes. Our results show that management efforts, including herbicide application and seeding of plants, directed at controlling exotic annual grasses after a wildfire can positively affect habitat selection by sage‐grouse.

Relationship of greater sage‐grouse to natural and assisted recovery of key vegetation types following wildfire: insights from scat

“…The relationship between plot-and landscape-level factors and PrGRSG-scat in our study (i.e. selection for sagebrush and avoidance of steep slopes) was generally consistent with other studies which used scat (Kirol et al 2012;Arkle et al 2014;Lockyer et al 2015) or radio-telemetry methods to investigate habitat use by GRSG in either burned or unburned areas (Schroeder & Vander Haegen 2011;Anthony et al 2021b;Poessel et al 2022).…”

“…We expected but did not observe a positive effect of sagebrush aerial seeding on PrGRSG-scat. Radio collar tracking of a relatively small number of GRSG after fire indicated a stronger relationship of GRSG to treatments than detected here using scat (Poessel et al 2022) which may relate to greater independence of observations using scat combined with addressing the temporal covariation with statistical models, compared to the inferential risks of highly repeated observations from tracked individuals.…”

“…The management response to the exotic annual grass and fire problem has included one of the largest fire rehabilitation and restoration efforts underway, globally, and entails extensive herbicide applications and seedings or plantings of perennial shrubs and herbs (Pilliod et al 2017). Despite broadscale restoration efforts that are partly motivated by GRSG habitat needs (Davies et al 2011; Pilliod et al 2017), there is limited information on whether GRSG benefits from the interventions (Knick et al 2003; Pyke 2011; Poessel et al 2022) and whether effects are evident during initial post‐fire recovery when monitoring and agency focus is most intensive (Germino et al 2022).…”

Temporal mismatch in space use by a sagebrush obligate species after large‐scale wildfire

“…The elevational ascent of invasive grasses across the Great Basin now threatens higher elevation sagebrush communities that were previously believed to be resistant to invasion due to impacts of climate change, which will have a negative effect on sage-grouse habitat (Smith et al, 2021). Management efforts that directly affect the control of the spread of annual grasses following a wildfire can positively influence sage-grouse habitat selection (Poessel et al, 2022).…”

Novel environmental variables help explain winter weather effects on activity and habitat selection of greater sage-grouse

“…If sagebrush cover is, indeed, reduced, sage-grouse could lose important habitat during winter as well as breeding seasons (Wolf and Broughton 2016). As sage-grouse habitat becomes increasingly fragmented and lost to climate change and human development (Walker et al 2020), additional research into quantifying weather refugia for wintering sage-grouse populations may provide important information and more support for the conservation of sagebrush for sage-grouse winter habitat (Beck et al 2009, Poessel et al 2022. proportion of juniper land cover (Juniper), and month-long ( = 0.1) blizzarding (snow kg/m/s; Bliz) trends within daily ranges.…”