Here’s a summary of what a joint study of the Greater Sage-Grouse habitat concluded: “The model indicates that sage-grouse populations are more likely to persist in landscapes with a lower human population density, a higher percentage of sagebrush habitat, lower extent of agricultural development, fewer severe droughts, and at a greater distance from the edge of the species’ historical range.”

People clearly are in control of the first few factors, and global warming is likely to cause the feared droughts in at least some of the grouse’s current range.

Here’s link to the USGS press release.  They worked on this project with the Department of the Interior and Colorado State University.

If you want to see a map of the bird’s former range, current range and projected areas of extirpation, click here for the sad story cartographically depicted.