Shrub-steppe is an iconic habitat of the western United States. The shrubs, forbs, and grasses that define it make up a seemingly vast and open landscape that encompasses seven states. From eastern Washington and Oregon, through Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and into western Wyoming and Colorado, the sweeping landscape is described by some as the “sagebrush sea.”

Shrub-steppe once covered over 10 million acres in the Columbia Plateau, representing the northwestern edge of the roughly 247 million acres that covered the West. Today, just 20% of Washington’s shrub-steppe remains, and many of these areas are fragmented, degraded and at risk. Although fire is a natural part of shrub-steppe ecosystems, accelerated wildfire cycles driven by invasive cheatgrass have reduced fire intervals from every 30-100 years to every 5 -15 years. Sagebrush can’t recover in such a short time, and we’re seeing large tracts of intact habitat – and associated wildlife - being lost to invasive grasses and fire.