Community-based Capacity

We believe that developing partnerships in communities across the West takes time, credibility, and relationship building among public and private partners.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Intermountain West Joint Venture (IWJV) are investing in people in priority landscapes to develop lasting conservation partnerships in the form of community-based conservation capacity. The following individuals are part of the Sage Capacity Team and helping to coordinate across public and private boundaries, break through bottlenecks and challenges, track projects and success, and facilitate forums that bring partners together.

Additional positions identified on the map are in the process of being hired. Please contact our staff for more information.

This position is the first of its kind focusing on conservation efforts tailored towards one of the longest mule deer migration corridor routes in North America and surrounding wintering range. The BLM’s Arizona Strip District includes the northern portion of the Kaibab Plateau mule deer herd, which is part of the larger Kaibab – Paunsaugunt mule deer migration corridor that extends from Southern Utah to the Kaibab Plateau and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (approx. 2.8 million acres). For over a decade landowners, lessees, the land management agencies, and the state wildlife agencies have worked strategically to identify and implement priority projects. To ensure continued project planning, development, coordination, compliance, management and oversight the partnership established this position in June of 2020 and hired Jordan Menge in 2023. Menge’s position provides a key role as a liaison maximizing the benefits of financial resources to develop substantive proposals and projects for improving wildlife habitat, increasing the economic viability of permit holders, and building cross boundary relationships that will enable landscape-level restoration of sagebrush and strengthen the conservation ethic in the communities on the Arizona Strip. He serves as a member of the BLM Arizona Strip District’s Integrated Vegetation Management Team (IVMT), increasing BLM’s and partner’s capacity to complete landscape-level watershed implementation plans, develop a package of NEPA-ready projects awaiting funding, and strengthen BLM’s relationship with their permit holders and conservation partners. His position will assist with increasing the scale and scope of current vegetation treatment capacity and accelerate the collaborative work of partners through an existing RCPP grant focused on implementing projects on the Arizona Strip for the benefit of wildlife, particularly mule deer.

Menge’s position is hosted by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever with funding for his position being provided by BLM, Pheasants and Quail Forever, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and IWJV. Other partners include the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Mule Deer Foundation, Arizona Deer Association, U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

BLM Offices Supported: Arizona Strip BLM District Office

Position Established: 2020

The BLM Fire Program in Arizona has identified a need for establishing more partnerships to meet their goals of reducing wildfire risk on BLM managed lands. Management of the 12 million acres of BLM land in Arizona has become increasingly more difficult due to decades long drought conditions, woody vegetation invasion into desert and grassland ecosystems, and increasing areas of invasive annual grasses. Because of these threats the Arizona Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Intermountain West Joint Venture (IWJV), and Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever (PF&QF) have partnered to hire Jackson Gregory as an AZ BLM Partnership Coordinator.

The AZ BLM Partnership Coordinator will coordinate with all AZ BLM Field Offices to assist with the implementation of planned projects to reduce wildfire risks, improve rangeland health, and wildlife habitat. This position will assist planning for future fire management plans and initiatives to implement projects not only on BLM lands, but coordinating these efforts across landownership boundaries including private, state, and other federal lands.

BLM Offices Supported: All AZ BLM Field and State Offices

Position Established: 2024

The Bi-State Local Area Working Group (LAWG) works across jurisdictional boundaries to conserve Greater Sage-grouse and their habitats in the eastern Sierra region of California and Nevada. The LAWG was in need of someone to help the working group continue to grow and advance. In August 2018, they hired the first Bi-State Coordinator and this position was backfilled in 2022 by Tracy Misiewicz. Their duties include coordination, data management, and communications to review and report what has been accomplished in the Bi-State Action Plan, in addition to improving communication both internally and externally by updating the Bi-State website, developing success stories, leading field trips and volunteer events, facilitating meetings and coordinating among partners about current projects.

This position is hosted by the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association; she is based in the BLM Bishop Field Office, and is supported by BLM, the Nevada Department of Wildlife, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 8, Humboldt-Toiyabe and Inyo National Forests, Carson City District, and the Bi-State LAWG.

BLM Offices Supported: Bishop BLM Field Office

Position Established: 2018

The Buffalo-Skedaddle Sage Grouse Working Group needed a dedicated position to further support the collaborative conservation, management and restoration efforts of promoting long-term conservation of sage grouse, the sustainability of sagebrush ecosystems, and working rural landscapes. The partnership hired Janyne Little in July of 2020 to do just that! Little’s position provides the collective capacity of the group to scale-up on-the-ground projects through taking knowledge gained from pilot work and appropriately scaling up using concepts of adaptive management, strengthening partnerships across the 1.5 million acres that spans across Lassen County, CA and northwestern Washoe County, NV. Her position is key to expanding the mission of the Buff-Sked group and the approximate 15 local, state, and federal partners involved by providing more focused coordination and outreach to achieve effective implementation of projects for fuel breaks, green strips, juniper encroachment, and low impact stream restoration projects.  Little will assist with further development & refining of project priorities of the conservation action items from the updated Sage-Grouse Conservation Strategy and projects while taking others to meaningful scales. This includes working with BLM on National Environmental Policy Act clearance, various partners on funding acquisition, project planning and implementation, as well as establishing post-project effectiveness monitoring to support future management decisions. She will assist with expanding participation of the Buff-Sked group through effective outreach of group accomplishments, impacts, and future objectives. Little provides the local “glue” to assist the collaborative in achieving a functioning ecosystem and a collaborative with lasting relationships that supports key ecosystem services including an array of wildlife habitat, biodiversity, ranch sustainability, and recreation, which collectively define the landscape of northeastern California and northwest Nevada.

Little’s position is hosted by the University of California Cooperative Extension and housed in the Lassen County office located in Susanville, California. Funding for her position is provided by Lassen County, University of California-Agriculture and Natural Resources, Landscape Conservation Catalyst Fund, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and IWJV.

BLM Offices Supported: Eagle Lake and Applegate BLM Field Offices

Position Established: 2020

Seeking to enhance landscape-scale conservation and restoration efforts across Northwestern Colorado, the Mule Deer Foundation, Intermountain West Joint Venture, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and other local and state partners have come together to support a new position in the region, a Northwestern Colorado Sagebrush Partnership Coordinator. India Young was hired in early 2024 to provide range and wildlife technical assistance, coordination and support for collaborative conservation, management, and restoration efforts in crucial sagebrush steppe habitat for lands managed by the BLM Grand Junction and White River Field Offices, as well as adjacent private and state lands. This position is hosted by the Mule Deer Foundation.

BLM Offices Supported: Grand Junction BLM District Office, White River Field Office

Position Established: 2021

The Boise District BLM and numerous partners have engaged on a landscape scale effort to treat the persistent invasion of junipers into into their local sagebrush landscape, the Owyhee Uplands of Southwest Idaho. Over the course of the next 10 years they will strategically treat a total of 617,000 acres, with over 150,000 acres already treated since 2019. To further the delivery and implementation of these conservation efforts, they hired Connor White in July of 2020. White will provide range and wildlife technical assistance targeting conservation efforts on public and private lands to assist with the overall BOSH project coordination, management, and success. He brings over eight years of experience and expertise in this type of conservation work allowing him to step right into this position and play an integral role for the BLM by assisting with efficient contracting and providing increased coordination between all partners. For more information on the BOSH project, visit our BOSH StoryMap.

White’s position is located in the BLM Boise District office and is hosted by Pheasants Forever. Funding is provided in partnership by the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Idaho Governor’s Office of Species Conservation, and IWJV.

BLM Offices Supported: Boise BLM District Office

Position Established: 2020

In fall of 2017, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced an initiative known as Outcome-Based Grazing Authorizations. It is designed to offer a more collaborative approach between the BLM and its partners within the livestock grazing community when issuing grazing authorizations. The purpose of this project is to improve BLM’s management of grazing on public lands by offering livestock managers greater flexibility to respond annually more readily to changing on-the-ground conditions, such as drought or wildfire. This will better ensure healthy rangelands that provide high-quality wildlife habitat, while supporting economically sustainable ranching operations. The program highlights BLM’s commitment to partnerships, which are vital to managing sustainable, working public lands.

This opportunity fits into the BLM-IWJV’s Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands effort’s broader mission and purpose by recognizing and addressing the complexities of landscape management in the mixed estate found in the Intermountain West. By proactively addressing whole ranch operations, the BLM-IWJV partnership ensures that sustainable rural communities and ecologically vibrant landscapes are achieved through a conservation-centric model. In August of 2021, Adrienne Hoskins was hired to fill this position, which is hosted by Pheasants Forever.

BLM Offices Supported: BLM Headquarters

Position Established: 2018

Stakeholders established the Idaho Rangeland Conservation Partnership (IRCP) to formalize collaboration among existing land management entities, private land owners, livestock producers, conservation organizations, and other committed partners to foster positive results on rangelands. Brenda Richards was hired as the Coordinator to build the IRCP network and support locally-led rangeland collaboratives, organize meetings, develop a business plan, and coordinate communications to amplify outcomes achieved by the IRCP. She will also act as liaison with other similar efforts outside of Idaho, creating opportunities for shared learning and collaboration regionally. Richards has a degree in business accounting and almost 30 years of experience working policy and rangeland management.

Richards’ position is hosted by the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission and is funded by Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission, Idaho Office of Species Conservation, The Nature Conservancy of Idaho, Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Idaho Cattle Association, University of Idaho, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho State Department of Agriculture. Richards is based in Murphy, Idaho.

BLM Offices Supported: Idaho BLM State Office, Owyhee Field Office

Position Established: 2018

The Idaho BLM Burley Field Office has completed a large Environmental Assessment on 30,000 acres, primarily to remove encroaching conifers in sagebrush habitats. Over the course of several years, this position has played an integral role in expediting projects across the Burley landscape by assisting with efficient contracting and providing coordination between partners including the BLM, Natural Resources Conservation Service, public land permittees, U.S. Forest Service, and others. This has allowed for the conservation treatment of conifer removal to expand across land ownership boundaries and have a full watershed-scale impact for wildlife and working lands. With the first Environmental Assessment now complete, this position will work on Phase 2 of the project with local partners, conducting new assessments and other large projects across multiple ownerships.

This position is funded by NRCS Sage Grouse Initiative, BLM, and Idaho Fish and Game, is hosted by Pheasants Forever, and is based in Burley, Idaho.

BLM Offices Supported: Twin Falls BLM District Office, Burley Field Office

Position Established: 2018

To support conservation efforts across north-central Montana, partners identified the need for a Project Coordinator position to work across boundaries to conserve key landscapes for big game migration, other wildlife, and working ranches.

The Project Coordinator builds upon the success of partners (including Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, Winnett ACES and other conservation organizations) by implementing and leveraging conservation outcomes for big game migration and corridors through the Big Game Habitat Improvement Project (BIG HIP). The BIG HIP Project is a collaborative initiative to implement conservation and restoration efforts for the connectivity of grasslands and rangelands from the Canadian border to Montana’s Musselshell Plains through an RCPP grant. The Coordinator steers this effort by conducting outreach, overseeing the RCPP effort, guiding existing committees through project ranking and funding processes, acting as a conduit to provide partner coordination and collaboration to extend projects across ownerships, providing technical assistance to local landowners and neighboring organizations and partners to improve grazing operations, restoring critical habitat, and retaining intact rangelands on 60,000 acres in one of the state’s most coveted big game migration corridors.

This position is funded in partnership by Pheasants Forever, the Bureau of Land Management, the IWJV, and the RCPP. The position is based in Winnett, Montana and is hosted by Pheasants Forever.

BLM Offices Supported: Eastern Montana/Dakotas District Office, Miles City Field Office, Havre Field Office, Malta Field Office, Glasgow Field Office, Lewistown Field Office, Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

Position Established: 2022

The Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor Restoration Landscape in northern Montana is the focus of a partnership between the BLM, IWJV, and Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) to develop and implement conservation and restoration projects through hiring a Restoration Landscape Coordinator Position. Grace Hershberg has been recruited to fill this role to accelerate ecological restoration at a watershed-level scale on public and private lands throughout the region.

Hershberg’s position as the Restoration Landscape Coordinator will broaden partnerships and improve wildlife habitat and migration corridors through a network of public and private lands. Targeted projects include mesic and riparian restoration, fence modification for improved wildlife movement, grazing management, grassland seedings, conifer removal, and wood draw enhancement projects.

BLM Offices Supported: Malta and Glasgow Field Offices

Position Established: 2024

Needing a dedicated position to facilitate their collaborative work, the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership hired Sean Claffey in June 2018 as their Coordinator. In his role, Claffey is tasked with stimulating, coordinating, and completing priority habitat restoration and enhancement projects within sagebrush steppe and associated systems. The goal of the position is to build strategic, scientific, and technical capacity in the field, deepen key partnerships, identify and resolve technical issues, and widely communicate solutions and best practices. Claffey is working with private and public partners to manage and advance cross-boundary habitat restoration and enhancement projects within the High Divide Headwaters region of Montana.

Claffey’s position is currently funded by a partnership between The Nature Conservancy of Montana, BLM, Mountain-Prairie Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and IWJV. Additional partners include: Montana NRCS, Montana Partners for Fish and Wildlife U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Department of Natural Resources, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Beaverhead Watershed Committee, U.S. Forest Service, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Claffey is located in the BLM Dillon field office.

BLM Offices Supported: Dillon BLM Field Office, Western Montana Field Office

Position Established: 2018

The Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership (SMSP) is working to coordinate cross-boundary land stewardship work in Montana’s southwest sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Partners seeking to enhance conservation and restoration efforts across these landscapes include the Beaverhead Conservation District, BLM, and IWJV who are supporting a Southwest Montana Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator Position.

Emma Fullerton has been recruited to lead efforts to address invasive annual grasses and other threats to BLM, other public and private lands that share the sagebrush steppe. The Southwest Montana Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator will focus on conifer expansion, wet meadow and riparian degradation, invasive annual grasses, and wildlife movement barriers. Fullerton will cultivate relationships with natural resource managers throughout southwest Montana, the surrounding local communities, and private landowners to develop, design, implement, and monitor projects throughout the region.

BLM Offices Supported: Dillon BLM Field Office, Western Montana Field Office

Position Established: 2024

State wildlife agencies and partners identified several high-priority landscapes across New Mexico’s sagebrush habitat as critical winter habitat and migration corridors for big game species. The intermixed land ownership—including Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), State Game Commission-owned Wildlife Management areas, private, state and Tribal lands—creates an immense opportunity to work across ownership boundaries, build further partnerships and work on a landscape scale. To further help plan and deliver habitat restoration projects throughout northern New Mexico, partners established the Coordinating Wildlife Biologist position based in northern New Mexico. Kathy McKim was hired in January of 2021 for this community-based position with the charge of transforming opportunities into on-the-ground conservation projects and partnerships to enhance work in this landscape for big game and other sagebrush obligate species. McKim joins the team of partners with over 25 years of experience working across New Mexico’s landscapes. Her position will excel existing work, expand new partnerships and project opportunities, and further promote and strengthen the value of multiple-use management of BLM lands while connecting work to adjoining private lands—all of which is necessary for the sustainability of New Mexico’s sagebrush ecosystem and partnerships.

McKim’s position is hosted by Pheasants Forever, with funding of her position being provided by the BLM, Pheasants Forever, and the IWJV.

BLM Offices Supported: New Mexico BLM State Office, and Farmington, Taos, and Albuquerque Field Offices

Position Established: 2021

Nevada BLM and numerous partners have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the ambitious goal of leveraging conservation funding across state, federal, and private property to accelerate sagebrush ecosystem conservation implementation work. Modeled after the highly successful Burley Project in Idaho, the MOU will allow Nevada partners to cooperatively pool resources across the BLM Ely District Office area to treat encroaching conifer, invasive plants, implement pre and post fire conservation projects, and wet meadow restoration. To ensure the success of BLM and partners implementing conservation projects across ownership boundaries partners will backfill this position. This positions oversees project implementation, planning and develops relationships with the local community and partners to grow conservation coordination, awareness, and efforts. The scope of the position covers the Ely District Office, which includes White Pine, Lincoln, and Nye Counties. The position is key to partner coordination, contracting, communications of successes and lessons-learned, showcasing projects in order to expand efforts across landownership boundaries to have a full watershed-scale impact for wildlife and working rangelands.

This position will be hosted by Pheasants Forever and is housed in the BLM District Office in Ely, NV. Funding for this position is provided by the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Department of Wildlife and the IWJV. Additional partners include the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

BLM Offices Supported: Bristlecone BLM Field Office, Ely District Office

Position Established: 2020

The Results Oriented Grazing for Ecological Resilience (ROGER) collaborative group was formed in 2016 by a group of Nevada ranchers and several federal and state agency staff and other local partners. The purpose of this rancher-led collaborative is to achieve land management objectives that improve overall ecological resilience, landscape health and productivity, and support ranching. Over the past four years, this group has strived to create avenues to bring various parties together to communicate, share information, ask the “hard” questions, work through disagreements, and learn together to develop solutions to the issues at hand. This group functions as an information, learning, and communication venue that supports individuals and groups to find new and adaptive land management techniques. The group is focused on the following topics: outcome-based grazing; adaptive management planning; wildfire management and assessment and monitoring.  This collaborative model of doing business is allowing for creative and innovative ways for numerous stakeholders to work together across ownership boundaries to find solutions and common ground to landscape scale issues.

Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands is supporting ROGER by providing funding to contract with Resource Concepts, Inc. to bring on board Katlyn Mendive as the ROGER Facilitator. Mendive was hired as the part time coordinator in August of 2020 and will help coordinate this group’s future endeavors. Additional funding partners include the NV BLM State office, the USFWS, and the US Forest Service. Listen to a webinar about their work here.

BLM Offices Supported: Nevada BLM State Office, Multiple District/Field Offices

Position Established: 2020

To oversee the Lakeview and Burns Sage-grouse Local Implementation Teams, which promote working land conservation and restore sage-grouse habitat and populations in Lake and Harney County, Oregon, the Burns & Lakeview Local Implementation Team Coordinator position has been established through a collaborative effort between the Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Intermountain West Joint Venture, and Pheasants Forever. This position will serve as a liaison between federal, state, and local governments and stakeholders, streamlining conservation efforts across interest groups and ownership boundaries.

The partners are excited to announce the hiring of Alex Dohman in this role. Dohman was hired in March 2022 and is based in Hines, Oregon.

BLM Offices Supported: Burns BLM District Office, Lakeview Field Office

Position Established: 2021

Sage-grouse Local Implementation Teams (LITs) were established in Oregon in the early 2000s amidst growing concerns associated with declining habitat conditions for greater sage-grouse and associated pending federal listing. To avoid a federal listing status, various interested stakeholders including state and federal organizations and NGOs (including Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, BLM, IWJV, TNC) and community members (primarily private ranchers) came together to establish the LITs. Throughout Oregon, five LITs were established, dictating boundaries from which collaborative conservation management plans may be outlined and executed at a landscape scale. Collaboration through the LITs allows for effective and strategic conservation across all property boundaries and at a landscape scale.

This LIT Coordinator position facilitates communication and fosters collaborative efforts between members of the LITs. They also provide progress reports and communicate with partners, funding sources, and the local media to highlight the LITs’ accomplishments.

This position is hosted by Pheasants Forever and funding is provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, BLM, and IWJV. 

BLM Offices Supported: Prineville BLM District Office, Vale District Office, Malheur Field Office

Position Established: 2019

The Wind River/Bighorn Basin BLM District and adjacent private and state lands contain some of the most intact, diverse, and productive sagebrush steppe remaining in the American West and approximately 25% of Wyoming’s designated Priority Habitat Management Areas for Greater Sage-grouse. In partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the University of Wyoming’s Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems (IMAGINE), and the IWJV have recruited Nancy Webb as the Wind River/Bighorn Basin District Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator.

This position will be field-based and dedicated to accelerating the conservation of the sagebrush steppe with the specific task of addressing invasive annual grasses in northwestern Wyoming. In this position Nancy will work closely with a network of federal, state and local partners to develop and implement strategic invasive annual grass programs in the region. These efforts will help with managing fuel loads and initiating grazing allotment projects to address the threats of invasive annual grasses, conifer expansion, and wet meadow riparian habitat degradation.

BLM Offices Supported: BLM Wind River/Bighorn Basin District Office

Position Established: 2024