The last few weeks Craighead Beringia South in cooperation with Grand Teton National Park and Wyoming Game & Fish Department has been monitoring lek sites for the arrival of male sage grouse. This week we found 17 male sage grouse starting to gather at the lek north of the airport!

Grand Teton National Park offers the opportunity to view a sage grouse lek during their spring strut. It requires an early morning, meeting a ranger at 5:30 am, but is worth it to view the male's spectacular display for the females. Click here for more info.

Since 2007 Craighead Beringia South has studied the sage grouse of Jackson Hole and the surrounding regions. With extensive field work complete we are continuing with several aspects of the project including two graduate student and community involvement projects. We aim to continue to understand and monitor sage-grouse demographics and habitat use.

To continue to monitor the health and size of the local population we hold an annual winter sage grouse census and help with lek monitoring each spring. For the spring of 2012 we will continue to monitor the local leks weekly in partnership with Grand Teton National Park and the Wyoming Game & Fish Department.

The 2012 Sage Grouse Winter Census has been scheduled for Saturday, February 18th 9am - noon. Craighead Beringia South conducts an annual sage grouse count in Jackson to census the health and size of our local sage grouse population. Volunteers are needed to cross-country ski and snowshoe across the southern half of the valley. 

If interested in volunteering, please send an email to beringia@beringiasouth.org with the following information:

   - Names of people in your party

   - Skiing or snowshoeing?

   - What level of activity you are comfortable with (low = .5-1      mile, medium = 1-2 miles, high = > 2miles)

Sage Grouse populations in our valley and nationwide have been declining for some time and there is a need to census these populations accurately. In order to accomplish this, Craighead Beringia South biologists have devised a new census technique that has proven very effective in the past few years. With the help of people like you, we have skied and snowshoed all of the areas in which sage grouse reside during the winter and counted all of the grouse seen. And its that time again!

Groups and individuals are encouraged to participate.

For more information or questions call 307.734.0581 or email beringia@beringiasouth.org

Happy Friday from Craighead Beringia South! This week we are celebrating two send offs. Trapper, one of our biologists is off to grad school. He will be working with our extensive sage grouse data to develop a habitat model for the local population. The avian team is headed to Pinedale where they will be tracking bald eagles to evaluate the impacts of natural gas development in the area. We wish them luck!

In an effort to keep sage grouse off the threatened and endangered species list the U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing funding to help protect sage grouse habitat. Craighead Beringia South's Sage Grouse Project studies the bird in Jackson Hole, Pinedale and the surrounding areas. The project aims to provide better understand of limiting factors of the bird to help with more informed decision making regarding management guidelines. Read the Article

Bryan Bedrosian's article "Tracking Fine-scale Movements and Behaviour of Greater Sage-Grouse with Solar GPS PTTs" was featured in Microwave Telemetry's newsletter. Microwave Telemetry manufactures the minature GPS units. Read the Article

Results from the 2009 volunteer sage grouse census. Read the Article

Jackson Hole News & Guide writes about Craighead Beringia South finding a large number of Sage Grouse.  Read the Article

Jackson Hole Airport gives money to fund sage grouse research. By Corey Hatch, Jackson Hole Daily News, October 20, 2007 Read the Article

Female sage grouse movements and breeding activity in the Jackson Hole area. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole News and Guide, August 22, 2007. Read the Article