Community-based Sagebrush Conservation Capacity Grows with New Faces
Over the past few months, Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands established a handful of new positions to advance the many facets of conservation necessary to secure sagebrush habitat. Growing partnerships in communities across the West takes time, credibility, and relationship building among various entities. Below are two individuals who are passionate about this type of work and conserving this uniquely Western landscape. We’re excited to share their successes as they get to work in their local communities!
Brooke Morgan
Sage Grouse Initiative Range and Wildlife Conservationist
Burley, Idaho
Brooke is the new Range and Wildlife Conservationist based in Burley, Idaho. She is originally from upstate New York, you know, where all the mountains and trees of the state are, but has bounced around the country since graduating from State University of New York Cobleskill with a degree in Wildlife Management in 2017. Brooke has worked in the very southern part of Idaho chasing sage grouse and farther north towards Lewiston collecting alpine lake data, with some various fisheries work in between for Idaho Department of Fish and Game. After some years as a tech, she landed her first permanent position with a private wildlife damage management company working on airports and naval bases in Rhode Island and Nebraska. Her goal was to come back west once she left, and she did so after a year in eastern Nebraska, when she relocated back to the Magic Valley as a Rangeland Technician with the Bureau of Land Management’s Shoshone Field Office for the summer, and then dabbled as a Soil Conservationist in the Natural Resources Conservation Service Arco Field Office the past few months. Brooke plans to make Idaho home for quite some time, and cannot wait to hike, fish, explore, and hunt more with her pack of dogs and humans.
Heidi Anderson
Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership Project Manager
Dillon, Montana
Following her graduate work at Montana State University, Heidi spent the last few seasons with the University of Montana Ecological Mapping, Monitoring, and Analysis Group where she held the position of Aquatic Ecologist and Lotic AIM Project Manager. In this position she began as a crew lead for Lotic Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (Lotic AIM) and was subsequently elevated to manage the whole Lotic AIM field-based program for U of M and the Bureau of Land Management. Heidi managed 10 field-based crews scattered throughout Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Oregon, and California where she reviewed data, coordinated with multiple BLM field offices, led national Lotic AIM trainings for crew and BLM staff, and overall did whatever was needed to make sure contract obligations were met. In the “off-season” she worked as a GIS Analyst using aerial and LIDAR imagery to map wetland and riparian areas throughout the American West to US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory standards. With all that experience Heidi was ready and is excited to be part of active management to improve range conditions. And of course, turn back to the streams every now and then, look to the uplands, and do a little more tripping through the sage.