Sustainable development and the great Sage-Grouse

• Published in: International journal of safety and security engineering 2017-03, Vol.7 (1), p.31-40
• Main Authors: Rideout, Douglas B., Wei, Yu, Epps, Joe-Riley, Mueller, David, Kernohan, Niki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Conservation areas; Drought; Ecosystems; Federal agencies; Fuels; Rangelands; Risk analysis; Sustainable development; Wildfires; Wildlife habitats
• ISSN: 2041-9031; 2041-904X
• DOI: 10.2495/SAFE-V7-N1-31-40

The invasion of non-native grasses, pinyon-juniper encroachment, drought and climate change have resulted in larger, more intense fires in the western United States’ sagebrush-steppe ecosystem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified these factors as the primary threat to sagebrush obligate species, particularly the endemic greater sage-grouse. A large portion of primary sage-grouse conservation areas reside on the U.S. Department of the Interior federal lands. In 2015, the DOI issued Secretarial Order 3336 that directed the development of a comprehensive science-based strategy to reduce the threat of large-scale rangeland fires to greater sage-grouse habitat and the sage-steppe ecosystem. This study reports the results of using the STARFire planning and budgeting system to respond to Sec- tion 7(b) iii-Fuels, Action Item #4 of the secretarial order. This study demonstrates the capabilities of STARFire to apply the latest science and technology using a risk-based approach to conduct a wildfire risk analysis and improve the targeting of fuels reduction programs on a landscape-scale study across the Northern Great Basin of the United States.