Uintah Basin

  • Next meeting: March 16, 2010, beginning at 6:30 pm in Vernal.  Please RSVP for dinner to Lorien.  We will be discussing the USFWS sage-grouse listing as well as plans for this year. For more information contact Lorien Belton (770-2413; lorien.belton@usu.edu)
  • Chairs: Scott Chew and Dave Allison

 Local Working Group (LWG) meetings are held quarterly. Unless otherwise noted the UBARM LWG meets during the following months:

January: in conjunction with UBPCD meeting (same day)
- Review plan strategies and actions
- Discuss spring monitoring and project goals

March: in conjunction with UBPCD meeting (same day)
- Updates and coordination regarding habitat or other project implementation and research projects.

Summer field tour in conjunction with Uintah Basin/Northeast Region PCD

November/December meeting: in conjunction with UBPCD meeting (same day)
- Discuss project updates
- Consider any new threats and any actions to take
- Propose new projects for funding in the upcoming year.

To be placed on the mailing list, or for specific meeting times and locations, contact Lorien Belton, CBCP Extension Specialist at 435-770-2413 or Lorien.belton@usu.edu.

 

 

UBARM Sage-grouse Conservation Plan

Sage-grouse Conservation Plan

 

Reports and Publications

 

Minutes:

 ECOLOGY OF A GREATER SAGE-GROUSE POPULATION INHABITING A NATURAL GAS FIELD IN NORTHEASTERN UTAH
Concern regarding the effect of energy development on greater sage-grouse has increased as the search for fossil fuel intensifies.  Greater sage-grouse may be especially sensitive to energy development because they require large areas of sagebrush and a diversity of sagebrush habitat to complete their life cycle. The habitat available to sage-grouse inhabiting areas with increased energy development can be reduced directly by conversion of sagebrush to well pads and roads and indirectly by sage-grouse avoidance of structures associated with energy development.  Some other effects of increased energy development on sage-grouse may include direct mortality due to collisions with infrastructure, reduced breeding success, altered habitat use, and the spread of weeds and predators.  Hence, balancing the habitat needs of sage-grouse with increased energy demands will be difficult.

 
Based on leasing activity, the rate of energy development in northeastern Utah is expected to increase dramatically within the next five years.  Seep Ridge, located approximately 45 miles south of Vernal, is one area where sage-grouse habitat and energy development overlap.  Within this area, there are plans to construct 3,550 natural gas wells in an area that is currently occupied by a small, seemingly isolated sage-grouse population.

Currently, little information concerning the survival, reproductive success, or habitat use of this population is known.  The Uintah Basin Local Working Group, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, BLM, Anadarko Petroleum Inc, Enduring Resources LLC, the Ute Tribe, and others have partnered to collect this information and identify conservation measures that can be used to mitigate the effects of increased energy development on the Seep Ridge sage-grouse population.  Additionally, we plan to compare sage-grouse avoidance of high traffic versus low traffic roads and will assess sage-grouse genetic diversity and divergence in northeastern Utah. 

 

Predated nest
Research was initiated in the spring of 2007 by Leah Smith, a graduate student at Utah State University.  Eleven birds were captured, fitted with radio-collars, and tracked throughout the year.  Interestingly, we found that sage-grouse mortality in this population was higher in the early fall when compared to other populations studied.  Another area of concern was the poor quality of the brood rearing and summer range habitat compared to other areas. Research will continue in 2008.

Biography

 
Leah Smith was born and raised in Whitefish, MT and received her B.A. in Ecology from the University of Montana in 2005.  She moved to Utah in 2006 to work on the black-footed ferret reintroduction project and is currently a MS student in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University.  Leah’s research interests include:  ornithology, wildlife ecology, conservation genetics, and sensitive species management.   Leah can be contact at:  leah.smith@aggiemail.usu.edu. 

Fire, Mountain Big Sagebrush, and Greater Sage-grouse

By Eric Thacker, Ph.D. Student, Wildland Resources

The role of fire in managing sagebrush ecosystems for sage-grouse has received increased scrutiny as populations decline.  Wildfires have been cited as a major factor in these declines in more arid area of the species range because sagebrush and other native species are being replaced by invasive annual grasses.  Additionally, because of the expansion of invasive species such as cheatgrass, the frequency and intensity of wildfires in sagebrush steppe ecosystems has increased (Baker 2006). This increase in fire return intervals has lead to a loss of habitat as sagebrush cover and desirable forb understories are replaced by invasive annuals.

The role of fire in sagebrush steppe system and sage-grouse management is spatially complex. There are several factors that make the response of fire in sagebrush steppe systems difficult to compare. Factors such as such sagebrush species, fuel loads, ecological condition prior to burning, ambient weather conditions, fire temperature, fire speed, and season of burn, all of which may lead to different outcomes. These factors then confound the comparisons of the effects of the fire.  This makes it increasingly difficult to evaluate the use of prescribed burning for improvement of sage-grouse habitat. 

In May of 2006 Dr. Terry Messmer and I met with Robert Christiansen, Ashley National Forest wildlife biologist and Alan Huber Ashley National Forest ecologist to plan project on Anthro Mountain designed to evaluate the effects of the prescribed burning program on mountain big sagebrush and greater sage-grouse that inhabit the mountain.  Anthro Mountain is a high elevation mountain big sagebrush community. The elevation of the Anthro Mountain study area is approximately 8000 - 9000 feet. The study areas are characterized as mountain big sagebrush communities, and black sagebrush communities, interspersed with pockets of quaking aspen and douglas fir.

The study included 10 plots, 5 plots were burned in the fall of 2007 leaving the remaining 5 unburned plots as treatment controls.  The burns were conducted in the fall to achieve an objective of low intensity fires that would create mosaic patterns. The actual area burned consisted of less than 100 acres in a mosaic pattern. The vegetation monitoring began in the summer of 2006. Thus we have 2 seasons of pretreatment data which includes herbaceous cover, shrub canopy cover, shrub and herbaceous height and sage-grouse use. Sage-grouse use is measured using 3 methods: radio-telemetry, sage-grouse pellet densities, and birddog flush counts. All of these measures have been taken following the prescribed burns.
Sage-grouse lek counts in the region were down considerably following the 2007 winter. This manifested itself in fewer birds being observed on the mountain. However, adequate moisture though throughout the season contributed to a dramatic vegetation response in the burned plots. As part of this research we are also studying the long-term effects of fire on sage-grouse habitat use by correlating sage-grouse summer locations with historic burn boundaries dating back to the 1940's. The project sites will continue to be monitored for several more years.  

Biography
Eric Thacker is a PhD student in the Wildland Resources Department at Utah State University. Eric grew up in Altamont, Utah. Eric received his B.S. in 2001 from Utah State University in Range Science. He worked for the USDA Poisonous Plant Research lab for 6 years as Range Research Technician. While working for the Poisonous Plant Research Lab, he completed his M.S. at Utah State University. His M.S. research was ecology and management of broom snakeweed.  Eric's research interests include restoration and management of sagebrush steppe ecosystems, sage-grouse habitat use, upland game-bird harvest management, and monitoring techniques for habitat management and research involving grouse species.