Conifer prioritization to defend and grow sagebrush cores
Pinyon pine within the woodland-sagebrush ecotone.
The expansion of coniferous woodlands into shrublands and rangelands is an ongoing phenomenon with a host of undesired consequences for native species and ecosystem services. In sagebrush systems in particular, conifer expansion can adversely affect wildlife species including the greater sage-grouse, pronghorn, and more. In recent decades, improving and restoring habitat for these species has involved conifer management, particularly in the Great Basin. Spatially targeting such efforts has been a growing focus of sagebrush habitat restoration, and an ever-increasing body of science has enabled the continuous refinement of conservation targeting to improve outcomes. Range-wide assessments, however, indicate that conifer management efforts may just be keeping pace with expansion rates into sagebrush systems, as conifer expansion remains a leading driver of sagebrush ecosystem degradation.
A newly created spatial prioritization tool maximizes conservation return-on-investment to defend and grow sagebrush core areas. Using an approach that integrated collaborative expert input alongside existing and novel datasets, researchers identified priority conifer management areas across the sagebrush biome. States with a large proportion of priority management areas include Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, representing an expansion of management priorities beyond the Great Basin. Simulated conifer treatments illustrate that the priority areas identified in this analysis have the capacity to improve sagebrush ecological integrity at the landscape scale. This work provides an actionable path to the "defend the core" strategy as outlined by the biome-wide sagebrush conservation design effort.