Anthro Mountain Greater Sage Grouse Habitat Restoration

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations are declining in Utah and other western states due to the degradation of their seasonal habitats from the encroachment of pinyon-juniper trees. This project evaluated the ecological viability of using "lop and scatter" methods to mechanically remove encroaching PJ trees to manage sage-grouse winter habitat at a study site in Ashley National Forest of northern Utah. The ‘lop’ constituted crews walking across the site and using chainsaws to remove all PJ, while the ‘scatter’ referred to the slash left where PJ fell. PJ trees were removed from 1573 acres of the study site.