An International Sage-Grouse Forum sponsored by the Jack H. Berryman Institute for Wildlife Damage Management at Utah State University (USU), state and federal management agencies, and industry was held in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 13 and 14. The forum, conducted under the auspices of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), drew over 350 state, federal and local government officials; private landowners; industry representatives; conservation group members; and faculty and staff from numerous universities. The forum was organized by Dr. Terry Messmer, Director of the Berryman Institute, who told the Wildlife Management Institute that in addition to the people in Salt Lake, more than 200 others across the 11 state range of greater sage-grouse participated in the forum via video-conference.

One goal of the forum was to provide information on the current status of sage-grouse populations, conservation efforts, and the ongoing status review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The other important goal was to provide a venue for diverse interests to engage in meaningful dialog about efforts to preclude the need to list the species. A federal court has ordered the FWS to issue a final decision by September 30, 2015 on whether or not to list greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

The forum began each day with a plenary session. On the first day, WAFWA Sage Grouse Coordinator, San Stiver, and representatives of several states and the province of Saskatchewan provided overviews on the biology, status and management of greater sage-grouse. USDA Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and Bureau of Land Management Assistant Director Ed Roberson described the coordinated, range-wide planning processes their agencies are pursuing to update forest management and land use plans to provide adequate regulatory mechanisms to protect sage-grouse habitat on federal lands, which cover two thirds of the species' range. Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert offered the perspective of the Western Governors' Association, encouraging the broad range of interests involved in use and management of the sagebrush landscape to continue working together to provide for both sage-grouse and a vibrant economy. He also urged the FWS to find the species "not warranted" for listing based on state-led conservation strategies.

Noreen Walsh, FWS' Mountain-Prairie Regional Director, described the process the FWS will use to reach its final listing decision. She also addressed concerns about the relationship between the FWS' decision earlier in the week to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as "threatened" and the implications for greater sage-grouse. Walsh assured the crowd that the Gunnison sage-grouse decision did not imply a similar outcome for greater sage-grouse was inevitable. To the contrary, Walsh said, the final decision to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as threatened rather than endangered as originally proposed demonstrated the value of pre-listing efforts to conserve species. She added that by listing Gunnison sage-grouse as only threatened, the FWS was able to adopt a 4(d) rule that recognizes much of the work done to date and allows greater flexibility. It also allows the FWS to chart a shorter path to recovery. Walsh encouraged all parties to continue their collaborative efforts and ensure that all that is being done to conserve greater sage-grouse is entered into the FWS' conservation efforts database so the FWS can consider it in reaching their final decision. She concluded by expressing FWS leaderships' hope that the collective efforts of the conservation community, landowners and industry across the range of greater sage-grouse would be sufficient to make listing unnecessary.

Plenary speakers on the 14^th included Jason Weller, Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Virgil Moore, Director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and chair of the multi-agency Sage Grouse Executive Oversight Committee, and Lee Cornwell, a 3^rd generation rancher and President of Cornwell/Langen Ranches in northeast Montana. In addition to being an active cow-calf operation, the Cornwell/Langen Ranches provide extensive habitat for greater sage-grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species that is protected in perpetuity through a conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy. The focus of this plenary session was the value and importance of working private lands to the welfare of sage-grouse.

Afternoons during the forum were dedicated to a series of workshops covering a broad range of topics from basic sage-grouse biology and management to ways to mitigate the impacts of development. Others addressed the workings of the Sage Grouse Initiative and other approaches to blending sustainable ranching with sage-grouse conservation and recent developments in management of fire and invasive species. One workshop explored changes in state management of sage-grouse harvest over the past three decades and the effects of anthropogenic food and nesting "subsidies" on raven predation of sage-grouse. Ravens are one of the main predators of sage-grouse nests and their numbers have increased exponentially across the West in recent years. Landfills, road kill and certain crops provide an artificial abundance of food, while transmission line and cell phone towers create ideal nesting sites for ravens. When these features enhance the landscape for ravens, they can reach densities that have an adverse impact on sage-grouse productivity. Efforts to reduce raven numbers through direct, lethal control have had some temporary, localized effect but discussion during the workshop identified the need to find ways to address the underlying causes of raven population growth by reducing availability of artificial food sources and redesigning tall structures to make them less functional as nesting platforms.

Due to the high level of interest in the workshop topics, some sessions were repeated on the second day of the forum to increase the opportunity for participants to join in multiple conversations. Dr. Messmer told WMI that all of the plenary sessions and workshops were recorded and will be posted on a USU website so registered participants will continue to have access to the discussions over the coming months. WMI suggested that given the value of the forum and the international interest and attention on sage-grouse, USU should explore ways for others who were not able to attend the meeting in Salt Lake or one of the other locations to access the recordings as well. For further information on the forum, readers should contact Dr. Messmer. (cs)