9th Annual SageCon Summit
Thank you speakers and participants for another great gathering!
Sept 24-25th 2024
SageCon Summit 2024
Day 1: SageCon Summit Meeting
September 24, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Carey Foster Hall, 590 SE Lynn Blvd, Prineville, Oregon
Agenda Overview and links to presentation files
8:30 Welcome and introduction to SageCon
Welcome from local and regional hosts
What is SageCon and how is it evolving?
9:00 Sagebrush and sage-grouse conservation from the Prineville Local Implementation Team -
Highlights of the collaborative work from around the Local Implementation Team’s geography and discussions about the benefit of coordinated projects.
The Prineville Local Implementation Team Experience- Andy Gallagher, Crook County Soil and Water Conservation District; Rachael Davee, SageCon Partnership
Prineville BLM’s Proactive Sage-Grouse Conservation Actions - Larry Ashton, BLM Prineville District
Dept. of State Lands-partnership projects in Sage Grouse Habitat- Randy Weist, Department of State Lands
Native Seeds for Rangeland Restoration - Alexis Larsen, Institute for Applied Ecology
Nesting Ecology of Sage-Grouse: Vegetative Correlates of Success - Rebecca Kelble, Oregon State University
10:00 Break
10:30 Status and trends in Oregon’s sagebrush country - Partners from state and federal agencies managing sagebrush in Oregon gave an overview of populations, planning efforts and mitigation siting process with an eye toward responses to this year’s rangeland fires.
Rangeland Fire Protection Association Contributions to Fire Season 2024 - Allison Rayburn and Don Tschida, Oregon Dept of Forestry
Sage-Grouse Population Update, 2024 - Skyler Vold, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
BLM Updates on Greater Sage-Grouse in Oregon - Kelli Van Norman, Bureau of Land Management
Mitigation in Sage-Grouse Habitat: Oregon’s Approach -Greg Jackle, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
Ravens and Restoration: Decisions in Sage-Grouse Habitat -Jonathan Dinkins, Oregon State University
12:00 Lunch (provided)
1:00 Tools you can use for planning and prioritizing work across big landscapes - After lunch we highlighted a curated set of technical resources, including geospatial datasets in the SageCon Landscape Planning Tool, Threat-Based Strategic Conservation workshops to develop a local spatial strategy to ‘defend and grow the core’, strategic post-fire planning, a workflow for mesic prioritization, and the Invasive Annual Grass Tech Transfer Partnership.
Tools You Can Use for Planning and Prioritizing Work Across Big Landscapes - Megan Creutzburg, Institute for Natural Resources
Ecostate Mapping and the SageCon Landscape Planning Tool - Dylan O’Leary, Institute for Natural Resources
Threat-Based Strategic Conservation Spatial Planning Workshops- Panel Discussion. Moderator: Vanessa Schroeder, OSU Extension. Panelists: Andy Gallagher, Crook SWCD; Shannon Ludwig, US Fish & Wildlife Service; Lindsey Smith, Lakeview BLM; Brie Porter, Prineville BLM
Threat-Based Strategic Conservation to Inform Post-Fire Planning- Katie Wollstein, OSU Extension; Chad Boyd, Agricultural Resource Service - View on YouTube
Prioritizing Mesic Restoration for Climate Resilience- Dylan O’Leary, Institute for Natural Resources
The Invasive Annual Grass Tech Transfer Partnership -Claire Visconti, University of Wyoming
2:45 Break
3:15 Actionable science from the SageSTEP network - We wrapped up the day with presentations from the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP), offering insights about restoration from over a decade of data collection at research sites across the Great Basin. We heard about major findings from the research, site-specific considerations for planning treatments and scaling up findings from the plot to landscape scale.
Fire at the Sagebrush/Woodland Ecotone- Rick Miller, Oregon State University (emeritus)
The Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project- Lisa Ellsworth, Oregon State University
Scaling Up: How Do Vegetation Treatments Look From Space? - Maddy Case, US Geological Survey
Fuel-Reduction Treatment Effects on Soil Carbon- Seren Bagcilar, US Geological Survey
Panel discussion and interactive audience polling
4:45 Closing remarks - Revisit our Summit themes and what’s next for SageCon. Rachael Davee, SageCon Partnership; Megan Creutzburg, INR
6:00 Social (no host) - Join us for a get-together at Wild Ride Brewery for dinner on your own from a variety of food carts and a chance to spend time with partners from other geographies
Day 2: Field Tour
September 25, 8:00 am- 4 pm Pacific time
This all-day field tour will highlight the work that our partners in Crook and Deschutes Counties have been doing and help us to understand the opportunities and challenges that land managers face as they restore habitats and increase resiliency against fire, annual grass invasion, and conifer encroachment. Sack lunches will be provided.
8:00- Meet at Carey Foster Hall, 590 SE Lynn Blvd, Prineville, OR 97754
We will gather in the parking lot and consolidate vehicles or buses and then begin our loop, heading south along the western edge of sage-grouse habitat. We will drive between the Brothers and Twelvemile sage-grouse priority habitat areas and note the contrasts in soils and restoration potential. The tour will feature soil scientists who will interpret the complex soils of this diverse area.
4:00 - Return to Prineville
Previous SageCon Summits
Review past SageCon Summits and the resources below:
2023 SageCon Summit (Lakeview, OR)
2022 SageCon Summit (Burns, OR)
2021 SageCon Summit (virtual event)
2020 SageCon Summit (virtual event) and Invasive Annual Grass Workshop (co-hosted by SageCon and High Desert Partnership)
2019 SageCon Summit (Burns, OR)
2018 SageCon Summit (Ontario, OR)
2017 SageCon Summit (Baker City, OR)
2016 SageCon Summit (Baker City, OR)