Sagebrush Collaborative Restoration Landscapes to Support Management Efforts Improving Fire Resiliency and Restoration in the Sagebrush Biome

The sagebrush ecosystem spans over 175 million acres in the western United States, and is biologically, culturally, and economically significant to the country. Many disturbances including prolonged drought, pinyon-juniper encroachment, and cycles of invasive grasses and wildfire, pose significant threats to the resilience of the sagebrush biome. To conserve the sagebrush biome and promote community and economic sustainability, the Department of the Interior’s bureaus and offices are working together with many public and private partners to implement a “defend and grow the core” approach to conserve remaining intact sagebrush habitat and ecosystem functions, as well as restore other habitat types which are important to re-establish and maintain the sagebrush ecosystem. To aid in defending and growing the core, we conducted a spatial analysis of current (2017-2020) sagebrush core habitat and growth opportunity areas (Doherty et al. 2022) to identify areas of the sagebrush biome that have high ecological value, resilience to climate change, and existing collaborative partner capacities that facilitate delivery of on-the-ground actions (see "SCRL_Raster.tif"). Using our spatial analysis, we selected areas of the landscape using sub-watershed level polygons (Hydrologic Unit code 12 [HUC 12], Watershed Boundary Dataset) to aid in prioritizing strategic investments in conservation and restoration actions that will “defend and grow the core”. We asked for feedback from tribes, states, and federal resource management agencies to further refine the landscapes to areas of greatest conservation need and collaborative potential. We call these areas "Sagebrush Collaborative Restoration Landscapes" or SCRL (see "SCRL.shp" in SagebrushCollaborativeRestorationLandscapes.zip).