Trudging through four to six inches of snow shouldn’t seem that difficult. But out on the high desert plateau in Owyhee county, a shallow snow cover disguises the rough footing below. Add a scrim of frozen, rain crust that is just firm enough to withstand 130 pounds but not 132 pounds, and you are in for an exhausting, back-wrenching trek.
That is how I spent a recent Saturday in January. Back in December I participated in a couple of sagebrush seed collecting projects. This time a group of hardy volunteers were out to scatter the seed in critical sage grouse mating and nesting habitat that was burned during last year’s Soda Fire.
Sage Grouse require a specific and unique combination of flat, grassy areas for sustenance-providing vegetation and insects, plus a dance floor for their puffed-up mating dance, surrounded by dense, low sagebrush for cover against predators. The grouse return each year to familial leks, where the males congregate to strut their stuff and attract their beloveds. Much like Salmon swimming upriver to their natal rivers, Sage Grouse return to their grassy leks, even when the habitat has been destroyed, which is part of why the species is now considered threatened.

photo: Bill S. Madisonbirds.blogspot.com
Last year Interior Secretary Sally Jewell initiated historic federal land policy changes that direct federal resources to open sagebrush steppe habitat. Those policy changes have been instrumental in implementing a collaborative and science-based approach to safeguarding greater sage grouse and dealing with massively destructive fires that plagued ranchers, outdoor enthusiasts, and native wildlife in the Great Basin of the west.
As a result, land management agencies responded with lightning speed to the devastation wreaked by last year’s 440 square-mile Soda Fire. The new emphasis on habitat prompted a game-changing collaboration between state and federal agencies including: Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Fish and Game, and Idaho State Board of Land Commission. The site-specific seed that was collected last fall is being distributed via:
- aerial spraying
- ground seeding – drilling and hand-broadcast
- seedling hand-plantings
Which explains why I was stumbling through the snow on Cow Creek on a cold January day, gaining a new respect for the Donner Party, while playing at being a modern day Joannie Appleseed.

Volunteers gather for a briefing

Unloading bags of seed

Someone described the seed like pencil shavings.

Broadcasting the seed. Snow shoes would have helped.

Seed broadcast (a bit too liberally) at the base of a burned sage plant
This is great and really helpfully, I hope. By the way I’ve never seen that bird before. But it’s one of the strangest birds I’ve ever seen. 😉
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The female looks pretty normal though, don’t you think? It’s just that the male is in mid strut pose. To attract the ladies they fan out their tails and pop out those chest pouches which make a loud noise. Just like men at the gym flexing their pectorals! 🙂
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What a stunning bird ! Good for you to help with the seed scattering. I KNOW how hard it would be walking in that snow on unsure ground.
And now in my head I have an earworm: “Oh the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord …”
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I would love to get as close to a sage grouse in strut as that photographer got. But I’ve only seen them from afar.
I hope that earworm does no harm. ;-}
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Wow beautiful photo of the bird and wonderful project! You are such an adventurer!
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Yes, I would like to say I’ve been close enough to one of those birds to have scored that photo…alas, I have not!
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Amazing
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Any bird capable of that kind of pecs flex is well worth braving snow, ice and Arctic frost for! Well done – hope the grouse continue to flourish.
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I hope so too!
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What a wonderful and worthwhile project… thank you! I love your writing and humor… “a new respect for the Donner party”! 🙂
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Thanks, Denise. It feels good to be able to do something that feels useful.
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Such an important project. I am impressed that you resisted snow and cold weather. Well done, Linda! And the Sage Grouse soon be back in abundance.
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Thanks. Yes, indeed. I’d love to stake out a spot near an active lek and try to get my own photo of a male strutting his stuff. They really sort of look like urban breakdancers trying to attract girls! 😉
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If you have that situation in the winter (snow and ice) buy a pair of (I call them cleats). They fasten to the bottom of your shoes or boots and the metal rings provide excellent traction. I bought several pair for $12
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Funny, when I was a letter carrier I had a pair of those. But alas, I never used them because they were too slippery getting in and out of the metal flooring of the mail truck and they would have wrecked the flooring of businesses I had to walk into. Really, if only I had known what I would be up against, I’d have brought my snowshoes. The organizer of the project apologized to us for not adequately preparing us for the conditions. It was a good, much needed workout. ;-/
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