• CSI is the organization providing the Leadership, Coordination, and Funding Mechanisms to achieve compatibility among land uses across 66 million acres of public and private land in the U.S. West
• CSI has formulated conservation strategies that address the needs of landowners, public ranchers, oil & gas companies, mining concerns, western states, conservation groups, and many others.
• CSI identifies and provides credible support for landscape scale demonstration projects that advance the scientific understanding of restoration.
• CSI is facilitates communication and awareness of funding, partnerships, and technical assistance among local working groups throughout the west.
• CSI is leading the way toward functional regulatory assurances for landowners, states, and industry.
• CSI is actively testing a sagebrush credit system that will reward verifiable conservation practices and provide a reliable bank of mitigation opportunities for landowners, industry, states, and others.
• CSI has been endorsed by national agriculture groups, the Western Governors Association, highlighted as a top collaborative effort in a GAO report, and awarded the 2007 Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commissions environmental stewardship award.
  

NEWS - Federal sage grouse listing may go to 2010 (June 26, 2009)

By Nate Poppino, Times-News writer (Twin Falls, ID)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may not announce its decision on whether greater sage grouse should be listed as endangered until Feb. 26, 2010, a delay negotiated with the plaintiff, Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, in the court case that prompted the listing review. (read full article)

NEWS - BLM Motion Denied (05/14/2009)

Judge Winmill, Federal Dist. Court in Boise

Sagebrush Credit Trading Program Interim Report

With funding from the Conservation Innovation Grant through Colorado NRCS and the Bradley Fund for the Environment, researchers have taken an important step in the direction of developing a reliable framework for a tradable sagebrush habitat credit program.  The Ecosystem Management Research Institute (EMRI) conducted extensive field testing of a methodology for assigning ecological value to sagebrush habitat attributes.  Their results are helping to inform and guide real-world applicationgs of credit generation currently underway through a national CIG award to CSI.  An interim report is now available.

BLM and FWS Sign First New Mexico CCA/CCAA

Many CSI partners have been working toward the development of regulatory assurances that would encompass landscapes with mixed federal and non-federal ownerships.  With the conclusion of a landmark agreement in south eastern New Mexico, which incentivises proactive conservation for the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard (right), similar tools for sagebrush seem likely to follow. 

CSI Encourages National Sagebrush Funding

FWS Issues Guidance on Conservation Agreements in Mixed Ownership Areas

Intermixed Federal, State, Private, and Tribal lands are common in the West.

The Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative is helping to create new incentives for voluntary conservation in the West.  Due in part to CSI's efforts, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been working for the last several months to explain how greater predictability could be given on both federal and non-federal lands through conservation agreements.  The Service’s efforts resulted in the promulgation on September 8 of formal Guidance on Using Existing Tools to Expand Cooperative Conservation for Candidate Species on Mixed Federal and Non-Federal Lands.  For a more complete discussion of the possible application of these tools, see "The Use of Conservation Agreements,Candidate Conservation Agreements, and Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances In the Sage-steppe Ecosystem."

Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative Approved for $2 Million Project for Critical Wildlife Habitat

GAO Report Highlights CSI

The Government Accountability Office has released a report entitled: "Natural Resource Management: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Federal Participation in Collaborative Efforts to Reduce Conflicts and Improve Natural Resource Conditions." 

The report cites seven cooperative efforts around the nation, and evaluates accomplishments and barriers for each.  The report recognizes the growth of cooperative conservation in the 1990s and analyzes the expansion of public-private partnerships in light of a 2004 Executive Order on Cooperative Conservation which further encouraged such efforts. 

EnCana Launches Sagebrush Project in Wyoming

EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. has funded a project through the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of Wyoming for an integrated approach to wildlife and livestock habitat management within the Frenchie Draw Field in Fremont County, Wyo. The project will design and implement habitat enhancements and strategies to maintain wildlife and livestock habitat use in an oil and gas production field.

Murphy Fire Burns more than 650,000 acres of ID Sagebrush Habitat

CSI has responded to a request from Idaho Governor Butch Otter to help stabilize and restore sagebrush habitat that burned in the 2007 Murphy Complex in Southern Idaho.  This multi-state, multi-agency effort is a critical test of CSI's ability to work across the sagebrush range in core habitat areas.

Idaho Contingent Visits California Sagebrush Steppe Partners

In mid-October John Romero (Idaho Sage-grouse Advisory Committee) brought a group from Idaho to view the Butte Creek Cooperative Sagebrush Steppe Restoration Initiative's (CSSRI) project in northeastern California. The Butte Creek project is both a sagebrush steppe and eastside forest restoration project. Juniper is removed and processed for use as biomass fuel in the production of electricity at the Burney Forest Power generating facility. The $200,000 project is funded by the California Fire Safe Council/USFS, Lassen County Resource Advisory Committee, NRCS/Conservation Innovative Grant, Lassen County Fire Safe Council, Pit Resource Conservation District, Susanville Indian Rancheria, Lassen County and CalFire. The work is being implemented on both private and BLM managed lands. (Photos and descriptions from tour.)

The Whitehouse Supports Recovery Credit Policy for Species Conservation

CSI's sagebrush conservation credit concept gained traction on October 19, 2007 when the Whitehouse announced that the Administration will put forward a policy called recovery credit trading. With this policy, landowners who improve habitat for birds and other species will earn recovery credits that they can sell. The concept was developed among landowners, conservation groups, Texas A&M University, and the Departments of Army and Defense around Fort Hood in central Texas who established a voluntary recovery credit pilot project for the endangered golden cheeked warbler.  This new policy will formalize this practice for recovering species. It is not clear how this system would function for non-listed species, such as sage-grouse or mule deer. 

CSI Wins IOGCC Environmental Partnership Award

In only its first year of existence, CSI has been recognized for outstanding conservation achievement by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. CSI representatives were presented with the 2007 IOGCC Chairman's award for environmental partnership at a ceremony in New Orleans on September 24th. 

CSI Calls for First Round of Project Proposals
On May 1, 2007 CSI issued its first round of Request for Proposals calling for sagebrush conservation projects. Three landscape-scale projects were selected by CSI for support.  Information about those projects will be available soon. The 2007 RFP can be viewed at: CSI Demonstration Project RFP (pdf) . The 2008 RFP will be available later this year.

The Sagebrush Steward - May 2007

The Sagebrush Steward - April 2007

Western Governors' Association Joins CSI

American Sheep Industry Endorses CSI

Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative - Slide Show (2.28 MB PDF)

NEWS - Federal sage grouse listing may go to 2010

By Nate Poppino, Times-News writer (Twin Falls, ID)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may not announce its decision on whether greater sage grouse should be listed as endangered until Feb. 26, 2010, a delay negotiated with the plaintiff, Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, in the court case that prompted the listing review. (read full article)