What is the Healthy Lands Initiative?

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne launched the Healthy Lands Initiative 

(HLI) in 2007 to accelerate land restoration, increase productivity, and improve 

the health of public lands in the Western United States. The goal of the Initiative 

is to preserve the diversity and productivity of public and private lands across the 

landscape. The Initiative will enable and encourage local BLM managers to set 

priorities across a broader scale and mitigate impacts to an array of resources in 

ways not previously available to them.

The President’s 2009 budget includes an increase of $10 million for HLI over 

the level enacted in Fiscal Year 2008. The effort has focused on landscape-level 

restoration effort on southwest Wyoming; northwest and southeast portions of 

New Mexico; south-central Idaho; southwest Colorado; Utah; and a three-corner 

area of Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada. In FY 2009, areas in northwest Colorado and 

parts of California would be added.

Meeting both our energy and land 

health goals requires integrated, 

landscape-scale habitat protections 

and resource management. Our 

initiative combines investments 

in habitat protection with policy 

improvements that will protect 800 

species, including the sage-grouse.

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne

By the Numbers

Healthy 

Lands 

Initiative

OREGON-IDAHO-NEVADA

Shrub-Steppe Landscape 

The Oregon-Idaho-Nevada 

Cooperative Shrub-Steppe 

Restoration Partnership is a 

coordinated, landscape-level program 

involving multiple partners working 

together to maintain shrub-steppe 

health where it currently exists and to 

strategically restore areas critical to 

wildlife. The Partnership will accelerate 

implementation of the three states’ sagegrouse conservation plans. Sagebrush 

shrub-steppe habitat is vital to ensure 

viable populations of sage-grouse and thus 

preclude the need to list this and other 

sagebrush obligate species.

The Shrub-Steppe Restoration 

Partnership Area provides a stronghold 

for sagebrush-dependent wildlife species.

This three-state area encompasses 53.5 

million acres, roughly 50 percent of the 

remaining sagebrush-steppe habitat in the 

Great Basin. The diversity and integrity of 

the plant communities in this area support 

crucial habitat for large populations of 

sage-grouse, mule deer, antelope and 

numerous sagebrush-dependent birds.

At the same time, this area is important 

to the livelihood of local communities. 

These lands provide signifi cant economic 

benefi ts to local communities from 

livestock grazing to hunting, mineral 

extraction, and recreational uses.

Increasing Threats to the 

Shrub-Steppe Landscape

The Partnership area is experiencing a 

tremendous increase in large wildfi res 

due to increased fi re fuels buildup from 

invasive species such as cheatgrass 

and vast shrub areas that provide a 

continuous fuel source. 

Cheatgrass is locally abundant and 

supports a vicious cycle of wildfi res that 

prevents the recovery of the shrubsteppe habitat. This hinders efforts to 

restore sagebrush habitat and sets the 

stage for the spread of more aggressive 

invasive species that further threaten the 

native landscapes.

Oregon-Idaho-Nevada 

Cooperative ShrubSteppe Restoration 

Partnership

Planned Treatments

• Number of acres of vegetation to 

be treated on public land: 23,000 

• Number of acres of vegetation to 

be treated on non-BLM land: 3,900 

• Number of miles of stream to be 

improved: 65 

• Number of riparian improvement 

projects: 75 

2009 Budget Update
In the higher elevations, sagebrush steppe 

habitat is being degraded by the increasing 

expansion of pinyon pine and juniper 

woodlands. A rapidly growing regional 

population is increasing human impacts. 

Restoration at the 

Landscape Level

The highest priority is to maintain 

sagebrush steppe habitat followed by 

strategically restoring fragmented habitat. 

This action will conserve habitat for atrisk wildlife species, such as sage-grouse, 

that are dependent on large sagebrush 

communities. 

What We Know

• Large wildfi res will continue to occur 

in this area, but the frequency and extent 

can be reduced with appropriate fuelmanagement treatments.

• Invasive species will continue to spread 

and reduce the health of shrub-steppe 

communities. 

• Increasing use by growing populations 

in the region will further strain the 

ecological integrity of native plant 

communities.

• Maintaining healthy sagebrush-steppe 

contributes to the economic and 

ecological needs of communities. 

Partnership Goals

• Join local sage-grouse working groups, 

Federal agencies, and the scientifi c 

community in efforts to accelerate 

implementation of habitat restoration 

projects identifi ed in state and local sagegrouse conservation plans.

• Engage tribes, conservation 

organizations, and other state and Federal 

agencies to strategically select and 

implement land treatments to maintain 

and restore the upland and riparian 

components of these shrub lands.

• Build upon existing programs and 

initiatives, such as the BLM’s Great Basin 

Restoration Initiative, to implement a 

landscape-restoration strategy.

• Leverage funds to build on current 

successes to maximize the positive 

benefi ts of restoration at the largest scale.

For additional 

information contact:

Bureau of Land Management 

Oregon State Offi ce

Jody Weil

503-808-6027

Jody_Weil@blm.gov

Idaho State Offi ce

Cheryle Zwang

208-373-4016

Cheryle_Zwang@blm.gov

Nevada State Offi ce

Doran Sanchez

775-861-6586

Doran_Sanchez@blm.gov

Current Successes

• Izzenhood Fire: Seeded 2,034 acres to provide winter habitat and reduce the 

potential for large wildfi res on intact sage-grouse habitat.

• Northwest Sheep Fuels Project: Treated 709 acres to provide seasonal 

habitat and reduce the potential for large wildfi res on intact sage-grouse habitats.

• Boone Peak Juniper Cut: The Boise District’s Owyhee Field Offi ce 

completed 2,200 acres of juniper control adjoining key sage-grouse habitat. The 

project will improve local sage-grouse habitat by eliminating potential perches 

for avian predators and by maintaining sagebrush-steppe characteristics on the 

landscape.

• Battle Creek Allotment: Improved about 30,000 acres by hand cutting 

western juniper trees that were encroaching into key sage-grouse habitat. 

• South End Wildfi re Complex: 10,811 acres were seeded to encourage the 

recovery of native plant communities important to the sage-grouse and redband 

trout. Also, noxious weed treatments are being implemented on 7,715 acres in 

areas occupied by sage-grouse and other obligate species.