The baker sage-grouse local implementation team (hereafter, baker LIT) is made up of several partners including the US fish wildlife service, oregon department of fish wildlife, bureau of land…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, through the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657), awarded a $100,000 Cooperative Agreement to the County of Baker, in Oregon, to implement conservation actions that increase the quality and quantity of sagebrush habitat and reverse the sage-grouse population trend in the Baker County Priority Area for Conservation (PAC). The grant funds will be used to implement Tier 1 projects, which include removing juniper from high priority mesic areas within the Baker PAC. This work is being carried out in partnership with several organizations that make up the Baker Sage-Grouse Local Implementation Team, including federal and state agencies, local government, and private landowners. The overarching goal is to strategically conserve and restore sagebrush habitat to support the recovery of the sage-grouse species.

The baker sage-grouse local implementation team (hereafter, baker LIT) is made up of several partners including the US fish wildlife service, oregon department of fish wildlife, bureau of land management, natural resource conservation service, baker county, powder basin watershed council, TRI-county cwma, and private landowners. The overarching goal of the baker LIT is to strategically implement conservation actions to increase the quality and quantity of sagebrush habitat and reverse the sage-grouse population trend in the baker county. One key threat to sage-grouse within the baker baker priority area for conservation (PAC) is the degradation of mesic habitat important during the late brood-rearing period. Recently the baker LIT and partners identified and prioritized mesic resources using ground-truthed, remotely sensed data. Through this effort we have categorized management actions to protect and enhance mesic areas across both public (BLM) and private land within the baker PAC using a two tier, scalable funding scenario process. Tier 1 projects are those that are relatively easy to implement and will have a high cost-benefit ratio. Funds will be used to implement a subset of tier 1 projects, including removing juniper from high priority mesic areas within the baker PAC.