SageCon Summit 2025

Lynn Larsen

SageCon Summit Meeting

October 28 and 29 2025

Four Rivers Cultural Center, Ontario, Oregon

A virtual option will also be available.

For the 10th annual SageCon Summit, we will spend two days in Ontario, Oregon focusing on sagebrush landscapes in Malheur County that burned in the recent 2024 fire season. In the morning of day 1, we will hear updates from SageCon and learn about the collaborative work of the Malheur County Rangeland Partnership. In the afternoon, we will dive into the science of post-fire restoration and look at maps of the area we will visit in the field tour on day 2 through the lens of threat-based strategic conservation. The field tour will take us to a ranch that is managed as a mitigation bank and was partially burned in the Cow Valley fire, where we will explore post-fire treatments and fire recovery. Lunch will be included, and the agenda will include multiple breaks for networking.

Day 1: SageCon Summit Partnership Meeting

8:30 am Meeting | 5:00 pm Poster Session and Happy Hour | 6:00 pm Dinner

Working agenda (subject to change):

8:30 Grab your coffee and pastries and settle in

9:00 Welcome and introduction to Summit 2025

  • SageCon Partnership- Who are we and what do we do? (Rachael Davee, SageCon Partnership)

  • Local Implementation Teams: The Foundational Network of SageCon

    • Highlights from the Malheur Rangeland Partnership-  (Nicole Sullivan, Gallagher Fencing)

    • Responding to the Cow Valley Fire (Steve Meyer, ODF and Derek Bruckhart Cow Valley RFPA)

    • Lessons from Locally-Based Emergent Partnerships - (Katie Wollstein, OSU Extension)

  • Conservation on Oregon’s Private Lands SWCDs and USFWS- (Jenifer Boisvert, Powder Basin Watershed Council)

  • The 5 coolest things in the SageCon Landscape Planning Tool- (Megan Creutzburg, The Nature Conservancy)

12:00 Lunch - Provided

1:00 Restoration panel: A synthesis of practical information about restoration and post-fire rehabilitation from experts and practitioners, with a focus on strategic invasive annual grass management. (Moderator: Megan Creutzburg, TNC)

  • Why? A case for defending the core - (Anya Tyson, TNC)

  • Where? Threat-based strategic conservation for post-fire planning - (Cameron Duquette, TNC)

  • Interactive activity

  • What? Soda Fire recovery at 10 years: an unparalleled learning opportunity for breaking the cheatgrass-fire cycle- (Toby Maxwell, Oregon State University) 

  • 30-minute break

  • How? Best practices for operationalizing invasive annual grass restoration - (Mark Porter, ODA)

  • Panel discussion and more resources

4:15 Creating mitigation credits for development projects in sage-grouse habitat through TerraWest’s mitigation bank property- Andrew Shields of TerraWest Conservancy will discuss the challenges and opportunities of improving ecological conditions and the challenges of creating uplift post-fire.

This discussion will set us up for Wednesday’s field tour by sharing the fire recovery planning that TerraWest did in coordination with neighboring properties.

4:45 Close

5:00 Poster session and happy hour — 12 presenters will share research and projects that highlight their contributions to our shared understanding of sagebrush ecosystems. Cash bar.

6:00 Dinner - In-person attendees are invited to join us for a catered dinner

Andrew Shields

10:35 Networking Break

11:00 Regional Program Updates in Oregon’s Sagebrush Country

  • Mitigation

    • A west-wide perspective on mitigation policy and opportunities for restoration tied to mitigation. (Lee Davis, The Nature Conservancy)

    • Oregon’s Sage-Grouse Mitigation Program - (Greg Jackle, ODFW)

  • Sage-Grouse Population Trends and the Updated ODFW Strategy - (Skyler Vold, ODFW)

  • Sage Steppe Native Seed Strategy Development - (Rachael Davee, SageCon)

Day 2: Field Tour

October 29, 8:00 am- 4 pm Mountain time

This all-day field tour will take us to 3 Creeks Ranch, a property held as a mitigation bank by TerraWest Conservancy. They are implementing restoration to improve plant community recovery following the Cow Valley Fire. The tour will focus on planning and implementing restoration, understanding burn severity, and the links between range condition and mitigation policy.

We will gather at Four Rivers Cultural Center and carpool to three sites at the ranch.

Sack lunch and water provided. Bring your own water bottle, snacks, and coffee.

Andrew Shields

Register

There is a room block for the event at the Best Western in Ontario.

Please call the front desk and tell them you would like a room for the SageCon Summit.

(541) 889-2600

You may still register for the event, but the catering order has been placed, and we can no longer provide you with meals.

Previous SageCon Summits

Review past SageCon Summits and the resources below: