Involving Communities in Conservation of Wildlife Species of Concern: A Case Study - Gunnison Sage Grouse

For over two decades, Gunnison County, has worked to establish a culture and practices of cooperation, collaboration and partnerships that foster the Gunnison Sage-grouse so that the species is stable, growing, healthy and likely to persist in the long term.

Gunnison County has followed the guiding philosophy that conservation works best when implemented at the most local level possible - taking advantage of the legal and geographic reach and strengths of existing institutions and emerging networks - while addressing the needs of the species at the appropriate scales.

Together, the eleven counties in Southwest Colorado and Southeast Utah in which Gunnison Sage-grouse are found, the States of Colorado and Utah, federal agencies, landowners, recreationists, environmental interests, and the public at large, have accomplished efforts that:
* Encourage, support and consistently fund science-based and expanding conservation actions that best meet the needs of the Gunnison Sage-grouse
* Manage, monitor and adjust when necessary those efforts for a healthy sagebrush ecosystem
* Create community and rangewide plans sufficiently flexible to incorporate Sage-grouse research finds and successful practices
* Formally adopt governmental controls ('institutional controls") that include planning, zoning, road closures, use and time restrictions tailored to local conditions
* Foster widespread acceptance and use of voluntary efforts ("non-institutional controls") such as conservation easements, a Candidate Conservation Agreement With Assurances, and a Candidate Conservation Agreement to protect habitat
* Create, apply and monitor a "habitat prioritization tool" and range-wide GIS mapping to identify, "ground proof" and help preserve high quality Sage-grouse habitat and guide the location of improvements in potential  Sage-grouse habit.

* acknowledge and embrace the pivotal role of private landowners and local groups

* create unifying implementation structures

* work across geographic, political, cultural, demographic and legal boundaries.