The Sage Grouse Crisis has Reached Critical Mass

Throughout the rural sprawl of the American West, the sagebrush ecosystem has slowly been disappearing, replaced by invasive annual grasses and conifers.

With it, sage grouse are disappearing, too.

According to new data from the U.S. Geological Survey first reported by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, there are 80 percent fewer male sage grouse at leks compared to 1965, an annual loss of roughly three percent–one percent more than what was previously believed. Further, half of that loss has come in the last 17 years. This report highlighted five reasons sage grouse are in a steeper decline: habitat conversion to cropland, energy development and mining, conifer intrusion, climate change, and cheatgrass fueling more and hotter fires.