SageCon Summit 2021

The SageCon Partnership brings partners together to share our collective work toward building and maintaining resilient rangelands and identify key opportunities on the horizon to help advance our conservation efforts. This event will bring a focus on the processes, tools, capacity, and resources needed to support and expand locally-led collaboration that is critical to on-the-ground implementation of our work.

2021 Summit: Day 1 Recording here & Day 2 Recording here

AGENDA: DAY 1

Wednesday, November 3rd 

12:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks

  • SageCon Partnership Welcome and Brief Background - Megan Creutzburg, Institute for Natural Resources (INR); Jennah Stillman, National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC); Nicole Maness, Willamette Partnership (WP); Sara O’Brien, WP

  • Remarks from the Governor’s Natural Resource Office - Jason Miner, Governor’s Natural Resource Office

  • Meeting Objectives and Agenda Review - Nicole Maness, WP

1:00 Status, Trends, Actions and Opportunities: A 2021 Review of Sagebrush and Sage-Grouse in Oregon Rangelands

Panel Overview: We will kick off the Summit with a roundup of information on the status of sage-grouse populations and rangeland condition in Oregon, along with a presentation on voluntary conservation through the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) program. Your moderator will also guide you through some live demos of SageCon technical tools for landscape-scale planning.

Panel agenda: The following suite of short presentations and demonstrations will deliver information, familiarize participants with technical resources, and provide opportunities for questions from the audience.

2:45 Stopping the Spread: Addressing the Fire and Invasives Cycle in Oregon Rangelands

Panel overview: Wildfire and invasive annual grasses represent an existential threat to rangelands in Oregon and beyond. In this panel we will hear about opportunities through the SageCon Invasives Initiative and the state wildfire bill (Senate Bill 762), with opportunities for participants to weigh in on strategies to address barriers to invasive grass management. Then we will dive into some examples of how partners are tackling the challenges of strategically managing invasives and wildfire at the local level.

Moderator: Skyler Vold, ODFW

Panel agenda: 

  • SageCon partners respond: What are the barriers to invasive grass management? (presentation) - Megan Creutzburg, INR

  • The SageCon Invasives Initiative: strategic vision, focal areas, and opportunities (presentation)- Nicole Maness, Willamette Partnership

  • Wildfire risk reduction: Opportunities for Oregon rangelands from Senate Bill 762 (presentation) - Dylan Kruse, Sustainable Northwest

  • The Invasives Initiative geographic strategy to “defend and grow the core”: Prioritizing ranch-scale restoration and management (presentation)- Andrew Olsen and Jessie Griffen, TNC

  • Building resilient management partnerships for addressing chronic problems: The COVID 19 test (presentation) - Dustin Johnson, OSU extension, and Chad Boyd, ARS

4:15 Recap of Day 1 and preview of Day 2

4:30 Close for the Day

AGENDA: DAY 2

Thursday, November 4th

8:30 Welcome and Recap of Day 1

8:45 Proactive Management for Rangeland Resilience

Panel overview: This panel will explore different approaches to address the diverse and complex threats facing sagebrush ecosystems, focusing on opportunities to get ahead of threats by targeting intact areas and exploring innovative actions. We’ll learn from the lens of local land and livestock management in preparing for extreme events, innovative approaches to grazing on BLM managed lands, as well as a decade of proactive work to address early invasion juniper.

Moderator: Dustin Johnson, Oregon State University 

Panel agenda: 

  • Introduction and context setting (presentation)- Jeremy Maestas, NRCS

  • Rangeland producer perspective on land management for drought and early invasion juniper  - John O’Keeffe, Oregon Cattlemen's Association

  • Using grazing as a tool of proactive management through grazing flexibility on BLM managed lands, outcome based grazing, biological thinning, and targeted grazing - Autumn Toelle-Jackson, BLM

  • New technology at play and on the horizon -  Dustin Johnson, OSU Extension and Chad Boyd, ARS

  • Moderated discussion of the lessons learned, barriers encountered and ideas for the future

10:15 Boots on the Ground: Supporting and Expanding Local Collaborative Conservation

Panel overview: In this panel, our Local Implementation Team (LIT) coordinators will guide us through a discussion bringing in a diverse range of experts and partners from Oregon and beyond to dig into the question of what it takes to collaborate well through both planning and implementation phases of our work.

Moderators: Julie Unfried, Pheasants Forever and Dallas Defrees, Baker County - Sage-Grouse LIT Coordinators

Panel agenda: 

  • Setting the Context (presentation)- Julie Unfried, Pheasants Forever and Dallas Defrees, Baker County - Sage-Grouse LIT Coordinators

  • Secrets of good collaboration (presentation)- Brenda Smith, High Desert Partnership

  • Using storytelling/communications to inspire collaboration and showcase local actions for landscape scale efforts (presentation)- Hannah Nikonow, IWJV

  • Forest collaboratives: how they work and why they are successful (presentation)- Vernita Ediger, Deschutes Forest Collaborative Project/Ochoco Forest Restoration Collaborative

  • Moderated discussion of the challenges and opportunities for effective, inspired, and sustainable collaboration with Hannah Nikonow, IWJV, Vernita Ediger, Deschutes Forest Collaborative Project/Ochoco Forest Restoration Collaborative, Brenda Smith, High Desert Partnership; Jason Kesling, Harney County SWCD

11:50 Where Are We Headed as a Partnership?

Panel overview: We will wrap up the Summit with some reflections on the direction of the Partnership moving forward and our continued commitment to work toward shared outcomes of healthy and productive Oregon rangelands.

Moderator: Megan Creutzburg, INR

Panel agenda: 

  • SageCon lessons learned over the last 6 years - Jeff Everett and Jackie Cupples, USFWS

  • Lessons for SageCon from the sagebrush biome (presentation)- Tom Remington, WAFWA

  • Closing reflections on supporting locally-led collaboration - Julie Unfried and Dallas Defrees, LIT Coordinators

12:30 Close

Learn More! The Top (not so secret) Extra Resources Shared During the Summit

Previous SageCon Summits

Review past SageCon Summits and the resources below: