Renewable energy development is dramatically expanding across public and private lands in the unitedstates

Much of this expansion in the west will involve the development of wind energy in habitatsimportant for greater sage-grouse (centrocercus urophasianus: sage-grouse) and other sensitive species. The current approach to managing sage-grouse with respect to wind-energy facilities is to restrict thedevelopment of these facilities from priority habitats. This approach to managing sage-grouse habitats willcome under intense scrutiny as political and public pressure to increase renewable energy output rises andmore information is needed to make informed decisions regarding siting wind energy in sage-grousehabitats. We are proposing to use greater sage-grouse populations residing in and near a proposed windproject (project) located in the bureau of land management high desert district of south-central wyomingto develop such a framework for wyoming. The framework we are envisioning will include forecasts ofthe response of sage-grouse to infrastructure associated with a wind energy development (for use ininforming avoidance and minimization during development phase 1 ) the quantification of mitigationrequirements (for use in informing offsets phase 2 ) and an approach for integrating concepts of adaptivemanagement (monitoring data) into a program that builds on itself to improve management of wind energydevelopments and wildlife resources at other locations through time (phase 3). Our proposal specificallyfocuses on the first phase of this framework, wherein we will collect pre-development data to guide sitingof wind energy infrastructure in the project to avoid and minimize impacts to the local sage-grousepopulation. Our specific objectives are to (1) use pre-development resource selection and demography datafrom sage-grouse to develop prediction maps of habitat suitability and quality to inform siting of windenergy infrastructure, (2) inform minimization efforts by predicting the impact of different developmentscenarios on grouse population growth by using the habitat prediction maps and the response of grouse todevelopment in the literature or from data from other projects, and (3) estimate the mitigation requiredbased on the impact on population growth. Our methods include using preexisting grouse location andsurvival data (collected from 20182022) from nearby grouse populations as well as collecting this sameinformation before, during, and after development at the project. We will use these data to create modelsto map those areas to be avoided or where impacts from wind infrastructure can be minimized. Managersand developers need management prescriptive tools that can demonstrate a projects ability to avoid, minimize, and mitigate unavoidable impacts. Results from this research will expand our understanding ofthe effects of wind energy development on sage-grouse populations, which is necessary for informedinfrastructure siting. This research represents one of the best opportunities in the united states toimmediately address some of the uncertainty surrounding wind energy development in sage-grouse habitats.a primary goal with our research is to develop and initiate an inclusive framework that directly benefitspractitioners working on the ground to effectively implement the mitigation hierarchy for maintaining andrestoring ecological integrity for sage-grouse in regions throughout wyoming impacted by contemporaryand future wind energy development. If the framework we develop continues to be built upon, those taskedwith managing sage-grouse will have better information for minimizing and offsetting impacts to thespecies through time in the face of increasing development.