Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI)

The sage grouse, a chicken-like bird uniquely adapted to this habitat, is the poster child of the sagebrush country and is best known for its early-morning dance during mating season.

Large-scale conversion of native rangelands to cultivated fields, housing and energy developments, invading conifers, and catastrophic wildfires have fragmented this vital landscape, reducing its size by half. And many species, including the sage grouse, have seen substantial declines from historic numbers as a result.

Stewardship-minded ranchers are helping reverse this decline by conserving and enhancing sagebrush habitat. And their conservation practices benefit more than just wildlife. They are improving the long-term sustainability of their grazing lands. As the saying goes, “what’s good for the bird is good for the herd.”

NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help ranchers voluntarily conserve sage grouse habitat on private lands. This assistance helps producers plan and implement a variety of conservation activities, or practices, that benefit the bird and agricultural operations.

Rancher or related private land owners.

No award ceiling, payment rate, or cost-share percentage is published on the initiative page. SGI is not a separate pot of money with its own terms — it is a targeting strategy that routes you into two Farm Bill programs, and those programs set the numbers.

What NRCS does state:

• "NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to help ranchers voluntarily conserve sage grouse habitat on private lands."

• "Financial assistance helps producers pay for the adoption of conservation practices that improve the health of the sagebrush ecosystem. NRCS assistance covers part of the actual cost." How much of the cost is not stated.

• "Technical assistance is free" — planning help and the conservation plan itself cost you nothing.

• Money flows through existing programs: "WLFW is able to provide technical and financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, two programs funded through the Farm Bill."

How to find your actual rate. Payment amounts are per-practice and per-state — NRCS directs you to "Payment Schedules" to "Review the amount and availability of financial assistance for selected conservation practices in your state." Common funded practices here are prescribed grazing, conifer removal, and wet meadow restoration.

How payment works. "If you're selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done. Once you sign the contract, you'll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you'll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications." So: cost-share paid after implementation and inspection, at the state schedule rate. Applications are ranked and funded at set ranking dates rather than continuously.

A non-cash term worth knowing. Through the partnership's regulatory-predictability provision, "Landowners who continue to manage their ranches using NRCS-prescribed conservation practices are ensured regulatory compliance under the Endangered Species Act for up to 30 years" (wlfw.org). That is an assurance period, not a contract length.

Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.