25th Western Agencies Sage and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse Technical
Committee Meeting and Workshop, Spearfish, SD

26 - 29 June, 2006

**Program**

Tuesday AM

Sagebrush ecology, restoration and management

8:00 -- 8:15 Opening remarks

8:15:‑ 8:45 Sagebrush ecology and restoration ‑ Durant McArthur

8:45 -- 9:15 Management of big sagebrush/western wheatgrass/blue grama
for plant and animal diversity -- Daniel W. Uresk and Lakhdar Benkobi

9:15 -- 9:35 The effects of time-controlled grazing and range treatments
on Sage‑grouse abundance and habitat use in northern Utah shrub‑steppe
-- George Wilson, Jessica Clarke, Kenneth Clegg, Rich Danvir, and Todd
Cornia

9:35 -- 9:55 Livestock grazing management practices for Sage‑grouse
habitat, Wyoming Basin‑Southern Rocky Mountains Pilot Project -- Sarah
McCall

9:55 -- 10:15 Break

10:15 -- 10:35 Greater Sage‑grouse response to sagebrush management in
Utah. -- David K. Dahlgren, Renee Chi, and Terry A. Messmer

10:35 -- 10:55 Restoring Greater Sage‑grouse habitat and populations on
the Yakama Reservation, Washington -- Nathan Burkepile

Sage‑grouse population ecology, monitoring, and genetics (new moderator)

11:00 -- 11:20 Genetic diversity analysis of Canadian and northern
Montana Sage‑grouse: implications for the conservation of the endangered
Canadian population -- Krista L. Bush, and Cynthia A. Paszkowski.

11:20 -- 11:40 High annual reproductive success variance in both sexes
of Gunnison Sage-grouse -- Julie R. Stiver, Anthony D. Apa, Tom
Remington, and Robert M. Gibson.

11:40 -- 1:00 Lunch

Sage‑grouse population ecology, monitoring, and genetics continued

1:00 -- 1:20 Assessing stress in Greater Sage‑grouse by measuring
corticosterone metabolites in feces -- Mark D. Jankowski and Dan J.
Wittwer

1:20 -- 1:40 Spotlight counts: a new method for assessing chick survival
in Greater Sage‑grouse -- Brett L. Walker, Kevin E. Doherty, and David
E. Naugle

1:40 -- 2:00 Trial use of unmanned aerial vehicle to survey Greater
Sage‑grouse leks -- David D. Musil, Jamie A. Duberstein, Kyuho Lee,
Scott Bowman, Henry F. Percival, and Pete Zager

2:00 -- 2:20 What can we learn from Oregon Greater Sage‑grouse
wing‑bees? Christian A. Hagen, David A. Budeau, and Clait E. Braun.

2:20 -- 2:40 Annual patterns of survival, mortality, and movements of
Sage‑grouse in southwest North Dakota -- Christopher C. Swanson, Kent C.
Jensen, Katie M. Herman, Nicholas W. Kaczor, Mark A. Rumble, and Gerald
D. Kobriger

2:40‑ 3:00 Nesting success and habitat selection of Greater sage‑grouse
in southwestern North Dakota -- Katie M. Herman, Kent C. Jensen,
Christopher C. Swanson, Nicholas W. Kaczor, Mark A. Rumble, and Gerald
D. Kobriger.

3:00 -- 3:20 Break

Sage‑grouse habitats. (moderator)

3:20 -- 3:40 Linking occurrence and fitness to persistence: a
habitat‑based approach for the endangered Greater Sage‑grouse in Alberta
-- Cameron L. Aldridge and Mark S. Boyce

3:40 -- 4:00 Modeling and mapping Greater Sage‑grouse reproductive
habitat at the landscape level -- Jay F. Shepperd, Kerry P. Reese, and
John W. Connelly

4:00 -- 4:20 Preliminary results of Greater Sage‑grouse nest habitat in
Idaho -- David D. Musil

4:20 -- 4:40 Gunnsion Sage‑grouse use of conservation reserve program
fields in Utah in response to emergency grazing -- Sarah G. Lupis, Terry
A. Messmer, and Todd Black

Thursday AM

Population ecology and monitoring

8:00 -- 8:20 Sage-grouse Population Response to Coal-bed Methane
Development in the Powder River Basin: Region-Wide Lek Analysis ‑ Brett
L. Walker, Kevin E. Doherty, and David E. Naugle

8:20 -- 8:40 Sage‑grouse winter habitat selection and coal bed natural
gas development ‑ Kevin E. Doherty, David E. Naugle, Brett L. Walker, nd
Bert Jellison

8:40 -- 9:00 Dispersal ecology of juvenile Greater Sage‑grouse in
northwestern Colorado -- Thomas R. Thompson, Kerry P. Reese, and Anthony
D. Apa

9:00 -- 9:20 An effective method for translocating Greater Sage‑grouse
to Strawberry Valley, Utah -- Richard Baxter, Jerran T. Flinders, and
Dean L. Mitchell

9:20 -- 9:40 Augmentation of a Greater Sage‑grouse population in south
central Washington -- Michael F. Livingston, Michael A. Schroeder, Lisa
Dunham, Colin Leingang, and Dave Hays

9:40 -- 10:00 Survival of Greater Sage‑grouse in the northern Great
Basin -- Michael Gregg and John A. Crawford

10:00 -- 10:20 Break

Population ecology and monitoring

10:20 -- 10:40 Abnormal Alberta sage‑grouse embryos: current project
status and directions for future -- Krista L. Bush, Patrick N. Nation,
and Cynthia A Paszkowski

10:40 -- 11:00 Seasonal survival of female Greater Sage‑grouse
(*Centrocercus urophasianus*) in central Nevada -- Michael T. Atamian,
and James Sedinger

11:00 -- 11:20 Temporal variation in diet composition of pre-incubating
Greater Sage‑grouse relative to food availability and age of hen ‑
Michael Gregg and John A. Crawford

Lunch

Policy and Politics (moderator)

12:40 -- 1:00 The Sage‑grouse local working group locator: a geographic
perspective to Sage‑grouse conservation efforts on a range‑wide basis --
Lisa Langs Stoner

1:20 -- 1:40 Framework for describing and assessing Sage‑grouse habitat
at multiple scales -- Signe Sather‑Blair, Michelle Commons, Tom Rinkes,
and Alexis Carroll

1:40 -- 2:00 Integrated Sage‑grouse habitat conservation in Montana --
Rick Northrup

2:00 -- 2:20 Take action! The past, present, and future of Sage‑grouse
conservation planning. Sarah G. Lupis, Terry Messmer, Nicole Frey, Todd
Black Joan DeGiorgio, and Dean Mitchell

2:20 -- 3:00 Break

Policy and Politics (moderator)

3:10: ‑ 3:20 Regional database for Sage‑grouse population and ecology
data -- Sean Finn, Tom Zarrriello, and Jon Bart

3:20 -- 3:40 The politics of "managing" a new species: the Gunnison
Sage‑grouse, 1977‑2006 -- Clait E. Braun and Jessica R. Young

3:40 -- 4:00 Voodoo science and the conservation of Greater Sage‑grouse
-- J. W. Connelly

Poster Session

Investigations into effects of gas field development noise on
Sage‑grouse mating behavior -- Diane Blackwood and Gail Patricelli

West Nile virus mortality, seroprevalence, and infection rates in
Sage‑grouse and mosquito production in relation to coal‑bed methane
development in the Powder River Basin -- Brett L. Walker, Melissa
Doherty, Kevin E. Doherty, David E. Naugle, Todd E. Cornish, and Greg
Johnson

Sarah McCall