Washington Sagebrush
A tour of Washington state's sagebrush steppe and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law restoration projects.
A tour of Washington state's sagebrush steppe and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law restoration projects.
North America's sagebrush steppe ecosystem is large. The area is so massive, in fact, that is sometimes referred to as the "sagebrush sea." Dominated by sagebrush and short grasses, the arid ecosystem occurs across thirteen western states and two Canadian provinces.
Washington’s Columbia Basin represents the northwestern-most corner of this sagebrush steppe ecosystem in the U.S. It covers 39% of Washington and extends into Oregon and Idaho. The basin is surrounded by mountains and is often referred to as a plateau. The surrounding mountains block moisture laden clouds from reaching the plateau and thus, the area receives very little rain.
Washington's slice of the ecosystem is unique from surrounding states in many ways.
Unlike other states with large areas of federally managed land, Washington's sagebrush steppe habitat exists today as a patchwork of mixed quality sagebrush under various land ownerships and uses. Private ranch and cropland operations grow crops in fertile soils across the basin. Tribal reservations of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Colville Reservation encompass areas south and north in the Columbia Basin. The area is the ancestral land of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, and Spokane peoples. In addition to 12 Colville tribes and bands. The Department of Energy's Hanford Site lies adjacent to protected sagebrush lands on Hanford Reach National Monument and the Central Washington National Wildlife Refuge Complex, both managed by Department of the Interior. In addition to Tribal and Federal lands, Washington State Parks, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Nature Conservancy own lands within this area.
Today, the vast majority of the acreage in the Columbia Basin is private land. The number of federally owned and managed acres of sagebrush is far less than those in private ownership, providing an important opportunity to partner with private landowners to conserve the state’s remaining sagebrush steppe habitat.
This is a working landscape. As a result of decades of intensive human use and modification, largely on private lands important to ranching and agriculture, the sagebrush steppe ecosystem is now fragmented. However, this does not reduce its continued importance to people, animals and plants, although its ability to support native animals and plants is diminished.
The advent of center pivot irrigation opened up unprecedented agricultural opportunities in this region (see map below for 2022 crops in Washington). In turn, high quality sagebrush was destroyed or lost, resulting in a fragmented landscape. However, there are some intact sagebrush areas on Conservation Reserve Program and other Natural Resource Conservation Service lands that continue to support intact sagebrush.
There are several threatened or endangered species reliant on the sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Washington. Each has a unique story and connection to sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Here are a few key examples of these notable species.
The federally endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) is the smallest rabbit in North America and the only one to dig its own burrow. Burrow entrances are often under or near large sagebrush, the same plant that makes up 90% of its diet. Decades of habitat loss reduced its population to 16 individuals by 2001 and the species was emergency listed as a Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act in 2003. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is a pivotal on-the-ground recovery partner managing a robust breeding and translocation program in central Washington today.
Learn more about our partnerships to recover the endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit:
The Umtanum Desert Buckwheat has the best view on the plateau. (Credit: R. Riggs/USFWS)
The federally threatened Umtanum Desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) is found on the edge of a steep, north-facing basalt cliff on Umtanum Ridge in Hanford Reach National Monument. It is well adapted to hot dry summers and cold winters in the sagebrush steppe. This narrow-range endemic plant has only been documented at this one location, which presents recovery challenges, particularly related to dangers posed by wildfire. Amazingly, however, individual plants of the species can live for more than a century.
White Bluffs Bladderpod (T. McCracken/USFWS)
The federally threatened White Bluffs Bladderpod (Physaria douglasii subsp. tuplashensis) is found on the White Bluffs high above the Columbia River, and like the Umtanum desert buckwheat, only within Hanford Reach National Monument. The national monument is one of the last protected contiguous sagebrush steppe habitat areas in Washington.
Douglas County, circled in black, represents one of the last remaining populations of sage grouse in Washington state. (Source: Schroeder et al. 2000, Northwest Naturalist Volume 81:104-112 ).
Today, roughly 90% of the state endangered greater sage-grouse in Washington are found within Douglas County. These grouse are both larger and genetically distinct from other greater sage-grouse across the U.S. and so far, translocation programs to augment populations have been relatively unsuccessful.
Douglas County includes more lek areas than populations in more fragmented habitat like the Yakima Training Center to the south. Leks are areas where male grouse display to attract females. It has been recently shown that these grouse rely on Conservation Reserve Program fields for nesting. The Conservation Reserve Program has become a critical tool in sage-grouse conservation in Washington.
Male greater sage-grouse on a lek in Wyoming. (T. Koerner/USFWS)
The fertile soils of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem and the advent of well drilling, center pivot irrigation, and the ability to pipe water from the Columbia River to the Columbia Basin resulted in the conversion of sagebrush habitats to agriculture. Solar energy development is also a growing threat to sagebrush steppe habitats.
Explore the Working Lands for Wildlife's Landscape Explorer Tool to see a historical image (circa 1950) compared with a present-day aerial image to examine land use change in the past 70-years.
Less rainfall in the spring and summer, less snow in the winter, and snowpack melting earlier (Average annual temperatures have increased by 3°F in Washington since 1925) , are contributing to an increase in wildfire prevalence in the region. Unprecedented wildfires are reducing remaining contiguous sagebrush steppe habitat as invasive grasses, like cheatgrass, are increasing fire intensity and outcompeting native bunch grasses and sagebrush.
Wildfire is reducing the amount of native habitat available to species and can result in direct mortality. From 2016 through 2020, 1,259,938 acres of greater sage-grouse habitat burned in Washington.
Wildfires, pictured in red, in Washington from 1972 through 2022 largely occur within the Columbia Basin, outlined in black. (Credit: Washington Department of Natural Resources)
Wildfire and Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit Recovery
Wildfire can quickly burn sagebrush to ash, presenting an existential threat to species like the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit that rely on mature (30 year old) sagebrush for cover and food. Between 1999 and 2022, fires consumed most of the habitat in the species’ range. In 2017, the Sutherland Canyon Fire killed 80 rabbits when it burned an entire enclosure area as well as almost 30,000 areas of sagebrush. In 2020, dozens of rabbits were killed by the Pearl Hill Fire, which burned close to a quarter million acres in four days including rabbit enclosure and release areas.
It's clear that fires will continue to be a pressing issue for our species in Washington. Fire management techniques, such as prescribed fire, and the control of invasive plants are important going forward to protect remaining sagebrush habitat.
Swipe the slider below to see how the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit recovery emphasis area (some of the most important locations for the recovery of the species, in pink) has been impacted by wildfire (in red).
Wildfires, in red, have burned significant areas within Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit recovery areas, in pink.
Invasive plant species, like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), have caused dramatic changes in the quality of Washington's sagebrush steppe habitat. Cheatgrass in particular has altered fire frequency and intensity in Washington. Fire also promotes the spread of cheatgrass, making post-fire efforts to suppress it as well as revegetate burned areas with native grasses ever more important.
The Sutherland Canyon Fire completely burned a significant area of The Nature Conservancy's Moses Coulee Preserve. Significant revegetation and restoration work is on-going to restore habitat.
Moses Coulee Preserve before and after the Pearl Hill Fire. Left: before (2018, J Gallie/WDFW) Right: after (2020, K. Veverka/USFWS)
Determining the most significant areas of sagebrush that remain in Washington is challenging. However, there are several methods that can help identify areas that are important to conserve.
One of the earliest concerted efforts to map Washington's sagebrush was led by the Arid Lands Initiative (ALI), a diverse group of partners working within the ecosystem to advocate for and conserve species like the greater sage-grouse. While their map products extend beyond Washington's borders to encompass the entire Columbia Basin, it was the first time sagebrush in Washington was examined through a conservation prioritization lens. Check out the final 2014 report .
To generate a more complete picture of the threats unique to sagebrush as well as the amount of cropland in the Columbia Basin, a new spatial product is out thanks in part to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Science Applications program in collaboration with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Terradapt! The Washington Shrubsteppe Restoration and Resiliency Initiative (WSRRI) was created with a network of state, private and federal support. The map will be updated annually and provide an up-to-date look at how the sagebrush steppe habitat in Washington changes over time.
In 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This law included funding to combat key threats to the sagebrush steppe including invasive species, wildfire, and climate change across 11 sagebrush biome states . To properly address these threats, the U.S. Geological Survey's Sagebrush Habitat Conservation model was developed to identify sagebrush priority core areas, opportunities to expand them, and other important rangeland areas across sagebrush states. Sagebrush priority core areas are intact and functioning areas of sagebrush habitats. This strategy builds on the "protect the core, grow the core" principle to first address the largest most intact and functioning areas before managing degraded areas.
"Sage BIL" refers to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds specifically for "shovel-ready" on-the-ground restoration projects aimed at defending and restoring sagebrush areas.
In Washington, there are 11 current Sage BIL projects. Take a tour around the state below to learn more about them.
Sage BIL projects are being implemented by a group of experienced partners with a history of working to conserve sagebrush steppe habitat in the western United States. Below are a few of our partners we've worked with to accomplish Sage BIL priorities.
Organization that have partnered to accomplish Sage BIL priorities
The work to protect and restore Washington's s sagebrush steppe is on going. The on-the-ground work funded by Sage BIL via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making a difference in restoring habitats across central Washington.