This project will elevate the longterm efforts of the conservation community of the SAN miguel basin of colorado to ensure that the habitat of the largest remaining satellite population of gunnison…

This $261,216 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657) will support strategic efforts to restore wet meadow habitat in the San Miguel Basin of Colorado to benefit the Gunnison sage-grouse. The project will deliver tangible outcomes through on-the-ground restoration work on private and state lands over the next 3 years, engaging federal, state, county, and non-profit partners. The funding will expedite these restoration efforts and develop a model for replicating wet meadow restoration work in other Gunnison sage-grouse habitats. Post-treatment monitoring will allow in-depth analysis of the project's impacts and reproducibility. By supporting the ongoing conservation efforts of the local community, this project aims to protect, maintain, and restore the sagebrush habitat essential for the Gunnison sage-grouse and other sagebrush-obligate wildlife.

This project will elevate the longterm efforts of the conservation community of the SAN miguel basin of colorado to ensure that the habitat of the largest remaining satellite population of gunnison sagegrouse is protected with strategic and collaborative conservation action. Project funding will support strategic efforts to deliver tangible outcomes of wet meadow restoration in the subpopulations of iron springs and miramonte in the SAN miguel basin gunnison sagegrouse population. This project seeks to significantly bolster the ongoing efforts of the local conservation community by supporting the existing wet meadow restoration efforts to enhance habitat for critical lifestages of the gunnison sagegrouse. The project is highly collaborative engaging federal state county and nonprofit partners to take deliberate action to protect maintain and restore the SAN miguel basins sagebrush habitat through wet meadow restoration. Collectively these partnerdriven efforts will protect enhance and restore critical habitat for sagebrushobligate wildlife while supporting compatible land use like livestock grazing recreation and ecotourism. Funding will expedite ontheground wet meadow restoration projects on private and state lands over the next three years. In doing so this project will support the efforts of the SAN miguel basin gunnison sagegrouse working group colorado parks and wildlifecpw and USFWS partners for fish and wildlifepfw and their leadership in SAN miguel county to restore wet meadow habitat. Posttreatment monitoring will allow indepth analysis of project and reproducibility in other locations. The funding of this project is a pivotal moment for conservation in not only the SAN miguel basin but will allow partners to develop a model so that efforts in the gunnison basin a leading force in wet meadow restoration work can be reproduced within the satellite populations that are essential to the survival of gunnison sagegrouse. This project will allow USFWS to fully engage with the SAN miguel community as a partner. Beyond the direct impact and crucial acreage of these restoration efforts this project symbolizes USFWS commitment to supporting and uplifting our federal state county and nonprofit partners in groundbreaking ways to support their decades of efforts to protect this essential sagebrush habitat.