Introducing the Arid Lands Initiative

As part of our new Sagelands Heritage Program focusing on Central Washington’s arid lands, we’re joining a collaboration to maintain, restore and connect shrub-steppe habitat for the good of both wildlife and people.

 

By Alaina Kowitz, Communications and Outreach Associate

The sage grouse pokes her head out to greet the early morning sun rising over Washington’s arid Columbia Basin. She has used the sagebrush as cover for the night, as she does every night. Soon she may use the thick brush to hide her nest when she lays eggs. But today winter is giving way to spring, and it’s mating season.

With an occasional “cluck”, the grouse moves cautiously toward the center of the sage flats that fill the floor of a wide coulee bordered by steepening hillsides and brown basalt rimrock. In a small opening, a veritable meadow among the meter-high sage, male grouse are beginning to congregate.

These mating grounds, where males gather to show off elaborate displays during mating season, are called leks. Often prominent openings in the shrub-steppe, leks may be used annually for decades if not disturbed.

The males strut and fan their tail feathers, making popping noises with their inflated chests. The females observe quietly from the brushy shadows. Only a few males will succeed in being chosen as a mating partner. The picky females watch and judge, sometimes for several days, before deciding on a mate. After mating, the female grouse will retreat to a remote thicket of sage to rear her young, with the plant providing both shelter and food.

Historically, these large grouse were abundant throughout Eastern Washington. Today, only about 1,000 birds remain in two isolated breeding populations: one in Douglas and Grant counties and another in Kittitas and Yakima counties. Sporadic sightings also occur in Okanogan, Lincoln and Benton counties.

Scientists have long described America’s Sagebrush Sea has “old-growth forests in miniature”. This is an ancient and complex shrub-steppe ecosystem that once stretched from the eastern foothills of the Cascades through the Columbia and Great Basins, around the Rocky Mountains and into the western front of the Great Plains. Today, this expansive landscape is fragmented and threatened by development, agriculture, roadways, increasing wildfires and other challenges.

The sage grouse is an “obligate”, reliant on a healthy, connected sagebrush environment to survive. It moves extensively throughout its range searching for mates, food, and cover. Many die on fence lines as they attempt to cross, or become food for raptors, ravens or coyotes. Habitat loss and fragmentation threaten this fascinating but threatened bird, as well as other wildlife like mule deer and pronghorn antelope that thrive in this arid landscape.

Despite historically covering more than a third of Washington, the arid shrub-steppe lands of the Columbia Basin (also known as the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion) are sometimes overlooked among the Evergreen State’s natural treasures. True, rolling deserts of sage and rocky coulees may not inspire with the same grandeur as towering old-growth evergreens or massive icy-blue glaciers. But observe the frenzied dances on a grouse lek, or watch a majestic mule deer buck carefully escort does up a well-worn trail, and it’s unfathomable not to want to protect these creatures and the unique landscapes they call home.

We’re joining a public-private collaboration