The distribution of the greater sage-grouse (hereafter sage-grouse; Centrocercus urophasianus) has declined to 56% of its pre-settlement distribution (Schroeder et al. 2004) and abundance of males attending leks has decreased substantially over the past 50 years throughout the species’ range (Garton et al. 2011, Garton et al. 2015). Livestock grazing is a common land use in the sagebrush ecosystems that support sage-grouse, and livestock grazing has been implicated by some experts as one of numerous factors contributing to sage-grouse population declines (Beck and Mitchell 2000, Schroeder et al. 2004). However, there are also numerous mechanisms by which livestock grazing might benefit sage-grouse (Beck and Mitchell 2000, Crawford et al. 2004). Federal and state agencies often attempt to limit grazing levels on public lands so that livestock grazing has minimal effects on populations of plants and animals, but we lack scientific studies that have explicitly examined the effects of livestock grazing on sage-grouse. The objective of the Grouse & Grazing study is to document the effects of spring cattle grazing on sage-grouse demographic traits, nest-site selection, and habitat features. We focus on spring cattle grazing because spring is considered the time when livestock grazing is most likely to adversely affect sage-grouse.
