Two of a kind: Sage-grouse & Pinyon jay habitats

For decades, the BLM, private landowners and partners in federal, Tribal, state and local government have focused research, planning and management actions on protecting and restoring sagebrush habitat to reverse ongoing decline in populations of greater sage-grouse.

The BLM manages public lands for multiple use – including conservation – under our mandate in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA). We also recognize that natural systems are dynamic and do not neatly operate within administrative or analytical boundaries. Successful wildlife conservation requires thinking about how actions to protect one species may in turn affect another.

Especially in the Great Basin, juniper and pinyon pine trees grow near or adjacent to sagebrush areas that greater sage-grouse depend on for food and cover. While the grouse is the iconic sagebrush denizen, pinyon-juniper woodlands also have a signature bird species – the pinyon jay. 

Pinyon pines offer food and shelter to jays and their nests, in a relationship that is similar to the one between greater sage-grouse and sagebrush. Ongoing research also suggests that transition zones between pinyon-juniper woodlands and adjacent sagebrush are important for the jays during nesting and for storing food.

Climate change is affecting both sagebrush habitats and pinyon-juniper woodlands, most immediately by intensifying droughts and shortening wildfire cycles. Invasive grasses outcompete native plants for water and growing space, making it more likely that the same area will burn again before long.

Over time, these effects can upset the spatial balance between sagebrush and woodland habitats. Pinyon and juniper trees may start to expand into areas previously covered by sagebrush, native grasses, and flowering plants called forbs. With only so much surface to go around, sagebrush already being squeezed by cheatgrass can face further pressure from expanding pinyon-juniper. 

Expanded pinyon-juniper growth can be removed or thinned to preserve sagebrush habitat and reduce wildfire risk, but recent declines in the numbers of pinyon jays suggest the need to better understand how such management actions may affect long-term conditions in these woodlands.  

Science is being developed to support balanced management of pinyon-juniper woodlands and to ensure that both this habitat and sagebrush lands are healthy and resilient for the hundreds of wildlife species they each support, as well as human communities whose livelihoods and traditions are related to these lands and their resources.