sage grouse initiative

When most people think of forests, science isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but, perhaps, it should. That’s because the U.S. Forest Service Research and Development program oversees projects across many science disciplines including forestry, genetics, wildlife, forest products and wildfire.

And the agency has been using this science to deliver returns on investments for stakeholders, industry partners, and the public.

This past April, we woke up at 3 a.m. and made our way to a blind amid an expanse of sagebrush on a ranch in central Montana. When the sun rose that morning, I saw my first sage grouse--actually, I got to see more than 100 of them!--when the birds arrived at the lek site for their famous tail-shaking springtime courtship dance.

Seeing sage grouse in action reminded me how important it is to do what we do here at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). I saw firsthand how agriculture and wildlife can co-exist and thrive. In the West, we work with over 1,300 ranchers through the NRCS-led Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) to improve their ranching operations while also helping this iconic bird.