USU Researchers Monitor Sage Grouse Populations, Habitat With Help of Bird Dogs

Sagebrush and sage grouse are under threat from a few different factors: Cheatgrass-encouraged wildfires through the habitat, pinyon-juniper encroachment into the ecosystem, and general land development.

To help understand what’s happening with sage grouse, and in the sagebrush ecosystems at large, USU researchers are using bird dogs to track and monitor the populations and habitat of sage grouse.

Why that’s important to track is because the grouse sort of act as indicators of how the whole ecosystem is doing overall.

The researchers, Dave Dahlgren and Eric Thacker, along with their students through the Home Range Lab, hope to provide information to land managers and policy makers as they make decisions about these sagebrush landscapes.