Landscape-Scale Approach to Quantifying Habitat Credits for A Greater Sage-grouse Habitat Conservation Bank

Abstract

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is experiencing range-wide population declines and was previously classified as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. While policies regulating anthropogenic development are important in the conservation of greater sage-grouse, additional programs to conserve and enhance greater sage-grouse habitats are necessary to sustain populations. When impacts to habitat cannot be adequately avoided or minimized, conservation banking is a viable species conservation strategy. A key component to the development and monitoring of a conservation bank is the quantification of conservation value. We estimated seasonal resource selection functions to identify the relative probability of female greater sage-grouse habitat selection as a function of environmental and infrastructure covariates to identify habitat suitability categories and subsequent habitat conservation value across a landscape in central Wyoming to be used in a conservation bank. The methods we employed to develop habitat conservation value, together with the management and monitoring plan, provide a robust framework for accurately quantifying, monitoring, and managing the habitat value and therefore the number of habitat conservation credits for a greater sage-grouse bank.