Historical distribution and changes in populations of sagebrush
steppe species. Dobkin, David*,1, Sauder, Joel1, 1 High Desert
Ecological Research Institute, Bend, OR ABSTRACT- Sagebrush-
dominated landscapes comprise one of the most extensive habitat
types in the United States. These so-called "rangelands"
constitute one of our most imperiled and neglected ecosystems
due to the profound, ecologically-transformative influence of
livestock grazing followed by alteration of natural fire regimes
and consequent invasion by exotic plant species. Although
relatively few species of mammals and birds are endemic to
sagebrush shrubsteppe landscapes of the Intermountain West, we
identified 24 species of small mammals and 37 species of birds
for which these landscapes comprise a significant portion of
their total geographic range. We developed preliminary
assessments of changes in distributions and population status
for mammals by extracting survey and population data from the
scientific literature, putting this informat