West Desert

   Conservation Plan    Reports    Project

  • Next Meeting: January 31, 2012, beginning at 1:00 PM at the Tooele County Health Building. Contact Lorien Belton at 770-2413 or lorien.belton@usu.edu if you have any questions.

 Local Working Group (LWG) meetings are held three to four times per year. Unless otherwise noted the WDARM LWG meets during the following months:

February meeting:
- Project updates
- Review plan strategies and actions
- Discuss spring monitoring

Spring: generally no meeting unless the need is defined, but email updates and coordination to the list regarding habitat or other project implementation and research projects.

May/June: field tour to visit project sites, usually conducted in coordination with the Central Region UPCD field tour.

November/December meeting:
- 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.

 

WDARM Sage-grouse Conservation Plan


 

A note about the WDARM plan:. This is an adaptive plan, it will be reviewed annually and therefore is likely to be amended, changed, updated, and reported upon but it will not be ignored and just put on the shelf as a monumental accomplishment of those involved.

Sage-grouse Conservation Plan

 

Reports and Publications


 

Minutes:

 

Utah State University, Department of Forest, Range and Wildlife Resources initiated a research project in 2005 to determine the factors affecting Greater Sage-grouse habitat use patterns and populations in the West Desert Local Working Group Resource Area. This information will be used by the LWG to identify and implement management actions to benefit sage-grouse and the local communities. The objectives of this project are:

1. To determine Greater Sage-grouse breeding, brood-rearing, and wintering habitat.
2. To determine Greater Sage-grouse hen nesting success and cause of adult and chick mortality.
3. To determine the relationship between spring grazing and Greater Sage-grouse habitat use patterns.
4. To determine the effects of Mormon cricket control and the use of insecticides (DIMILIN® 25W and Carbaryl) on invertebrate populations.

In 2005, a graduate student, Jason Robinson, began capturing sage-grouse hens in the Vernon and Ibapah areas. Captured hens were fitted with radio-collars and will be monitored throughout the next two years to address the objectives listed above.