The sagebrush biome covers forty million hectares of the American West. Shaped by climate, fire, floods and volcanic eruptions since the Pleistocene era, the sagebrush biome now faces the impacts of increased cultivation, urbanization, exotic plant species, and altered fire patterns. In a session to be presented at the ESA 89th Annual Meeting entitled "Fighting the Odds: The Challenge to Save the Sagebrush Biome," researchers will discuss the history of the area and current projects underway to understand and restore this ecosystem. Rick Miller (Oregon State University) will introduce the session.

Michael Schroeder (Washington Department of Wildlife) will examine the impact of ecosystem changes on the distribution of the greater sage-grouse and the Gunnison sage-grouse in his presentation, "Changes in the distribution of sage-grouse in North America." Allen Rasmussen (Texas A&M University) will follow with a discussion on the suppression of fire in settled areas and the increases of fire fueled by cheatgrass in his presentation "Invasive species and fire cycles in sagebrush steppe ecosystems."

Exploring the effects of sheep and cattle, Kris Havstad (USDA Agriculture Research Service) and Marty Vavra (Starkey Experimental Forest) will present their talk, "Impacts of livestock grazing in sagebrush ecosystems. Focusing on the basic foraging behavior of livestock, they will review and characterize the direct and indirect impacts of managed grazing on sagebrush steppe rangelands.

The lands also play a role in oil and gas production. A majority of leases for gas and oil development are on federal lands in regions such as the Wyoming Basin and eastern Great Basin. Discussing a recent analysis under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, Sean Finn, along with coauthors Steven Knick (USGS) and Thomas Rinkes (Bureau of Land Management), will discuss impacts of oil and gas development on sagebrush ecosystems in their talk "Impac
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Contact: Annie Drinkard
annie@esa.org
Ecological Society of America
3-Aug-2004

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