Sagebrush Rangelands Have Thirteen New Champions
In May, new members of Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands’ Sage Capacity Team met in Salt Lake City for orientation.
- Susi Algrim - Natural Resource Specialist/Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy - Winnemucca, NV
- Emma Fullerton - Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator with Beaverhead Conservation District - Dillon, MT
- Jackson Gregory - Arizona BLM Partnership Coordinator with Pheasants Forever - Prescott, AZ
- Alyssa Grelecki - LaBarge Restoration Landscape Natural Resources Specialist with Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation - Pinedale, WY
- John Haddock (not pictured) - Natural Resource Specialist, Aquatics with Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition - Elko, NV
- Grace Hershberg - Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor Restoration Landscape Coordinator with Ranchers Stewardship Alliance - Malta, MT
- Ryan Holt - North Park Restoration Landscape Coordinator with Colorado Open Lands - Kremmling, CO
- Ethan Kalinowski - Southwest Montana Coordinating Natural Resource Specialist with Pheasants Forever - Dillon, MT
- Jordan Menge - Arizona Strip Coordinating Wildlife Biologist / Habitat Planning and Implementation Specialist with Pheasants Forever - St. George, UT
- Qaim Naqvi - Color Country Converging Restoration Landscape Coordinator with Mule Deer Foundation - St. George & Cedar City, UT
- Austin Quynn - Muddy Creek Project Manager with Trout Unlimited - Rawlins, WY
- Nancy Webb (not pictured) - Wind River/Bighorn Basin District Invasive Annual Grass Coordinator with University of Wyoming - Worland, WY
- India Young - Northwest Colorado Sagebrush Partnership Coordinator with Mule Deer Foundation - Grand Junction, CO
With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, we are in an era of unprecedented investment into American infrastructure and resources. In the West, rangelands and rural communities are an essential part of our landscapes, and these funding packages seek to acknowledge this with millions of dollars of investment into conservation and habitat restoration through the Department of the Interior. This money is both needed and welcomed, but a question looms for people working on conservation issues on public land: How can we get this funding implemented efficiently where it’s needed?
As part of the IWJV’s partnership with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands, our answer is this: Increase capacity by hiring great people in communities to start conversations, build relationships, plan habitat restoration, and provide assistance across ownership boundaries within sagebrush country. The result is our Sage Capacity Team—a cadre of conservation professionals stationed in strategic locations across the Intermountain West—and this month we warmly welcomed thirteen new members in a gathering in Salt Lake City.
These new members more than doubled the size of the team, which contains biologists, habitat restoration specialists, and project coordinators dedicated to furthering the BLM and partnering organizations’ conservation efforts across ten Western states. The roles of Sage Capacity Team members vary, depending on the needs of their communities, landscapes, and hosting organizations. Every one of them plays a vital role in local conservation efforts by facilitating funding of critical projects. As Sage Capacity Team members work to fulfill the terms of Partnering to Conserve Sagebrush Rangelands’ agreements with the BLM, they are involved with habitat restoration projects for the benefit of wildlife, wildfire and fuels management, and the BLM’s newly designated Restoration Landscapes. This can mean managing anything from conifer encroachment projects to mesic restoration, invasive annual grass and fire fuels reduction, implementation of outcome-based grazing and more.
“There’s a lot that the BLM can do from headquarters by working with partners on a national scale and getting funding out to our state and field offices,” said Frank Quamen, Division Chief for Wildlife Conservation, Aquatics, and Environmental Protection at the BLM. “But the really important work—the most important work—happens on the ground. I’m excited to let our partners know that we have these positions through the Intermountain West Joint Venture to facilitate on-the-ground collaboration.”
“There’s a lot that the BLM can do from headquarters by working with partners on a national scale and getting funding out to our state and field offices. But the really important work—the most important work—happens on the ground.”
For the new members of the Sage Capacity Team, who bring a wide variety of conservation project management and community outreach experience to their positions, this work represents an opportunity to make meaningful, impactful differences for both wildlife and people.
India Young, Grand Junction’s new Northwest Colorado Sagebrush Partnership Coordinator, looks forward to targeting funding towards land managers interested in fence improvements. “There’s an area that’s kind of at a higher elevation in our field office that has had a lot of habitat work done over the past few decades, but there’s all these really gnarly fences that are interrupting the connectivity of that area,” she said.
Meanwhile, Qaim Naqvi, the Color Country Converging Restoration Landscape Coordinator, reflected on opportunities to build ecological resilience in southern Utah. “I’m really excited to protect the land around some of Utah’s fastest-growing towns and cities from being potentially damaged by the impacts of that growth. This will build resilience for the future of this BLM Restoration Landscape,” he said.
Alyssa Grelecki, the LaBarge Restoration Landscape Natural Resources Specialist, looks forward to connecting with the next generation in Pinedale, Wyoming. “I’m most excited about working with younger people than me, and inspiring them to have careers in natural resources,” she said. “I’ve already worked with a high school group on beaver dam analogues, and I’m looking forward to continuing these kinds of outreach efforts.”
The new members of the Sage Capacity Team stressed that above all, they are most looking forward to continuing vital conservation efforts that are already underway within their communities. “I am most excited to work with all the awesome people that are working in my landscape already,” said Grace Hershberg, Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor Restoration Landscape Coordinator. “They’ve done a lot of great things, and I’m excited to continue working with those people to continue doing the great work that’s already been done.”
At this month’s onboarding, thirteen new members of the Sage Capacity Team participated in a strategic mapping exercise. Deciding where to prioritize conservation work is a perennial challenge—one they will all face in their daily work.
To learn more about the IWJV’s Sage Capacity Team, our work with the BLM, and the BLM’s Restoration Landscapes, check out these resources: