WYOMING — The Biden-Harris administration will invest more than $9 million in fiscal year 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to support sagebrush ecosystems across the west, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service announced today.
Projects will be conducted in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
According to the press release, the projects will combat invasive grasses and wildfire, reduce encroaching conifers, safeguard precious water resources for neighboring communities and wildlife, and promote community and economic sustainability.
Spanning over 175 million acres, sagebrush country is home to more than 350 species across the West, including pronghorn, elk, mule deer and greater sage grouse. America’s sagebrush ecosystem is the largest contiguous ecotype in the United States, comprising one-third of the land mass of the lower 48 states, says the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.
“This is a historic opportunity to put resources into the health and natural infrastructure of America’s sagebrush ecosystem, which serves as the lifeblood of rural communities and Tribal lands in the West,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in a prepared statement. “President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history and will meaningfully advance on-the-ground efforts to promote healthy sagebrush landscapes and communities that have been threatened by the climate crisis.”
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was appropriated $10 million per year for the next five years to expand work with partners to conserve the sagebrush ecosystem.
“Sagebrush country is a national treasure that supports hundreds of species that live nowhere else on the planet,” said Service Director Martha Williams. “The Service is a partner in a larger constellation of public and private entities pulling together toward a common vision for a healthy sagebrush ecosystem. Our work in this landscape is reflective of agency priorities including supporting rangeland health, growing private landowner partnerships and public access, and reducing the need to list species as federally threatened or endangered.”
More information on the projects is available here.
