Webinar
Event Access
Nearly 10 years ago, WEST biologists began studying how wind energy facilities affect greater sage-grouse populations in southeastern Wyoming. Our team has since used a 20-year dataset to assess long-term impacts on sage-grouse leks across Wyoming. Today, our team is eager to share new insights into sage-grouse responses to wind energy development.
Our current understanding of how sage-grouse populations respond to wind energy is based on data collected after the project is developed. Without understanding how sage-grouse used the landscape before development, it can be difficult to draw clear conclusions or apply results to siting and management decisions.
To help address these gaps, WEST, working in collaboration with the University of Wyoming and the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center, completed the first study to evaluate sage‑grouse responses to wind energy using both pre‑ and post‑construction GPS location data. Conducted in south‑central Montana, this work integrates three years of pre‑construction data, five years of post‑construction data, and long‑term lek survey results.
Join WEST experts and collaborators as they share key findings related to survival, resource selection, and lek trends, and discuss how these results can be used to:
- Support science-based infrastructure siting
- Inform avoidance and minimization strategies
- Help wildlife managers and developers make better informed decisions in sage-grouse landscapes.