The Crooked Creek Project: A Cooperative Project for Sage Grouse Management

Grouse can move over a lot of terrain in the course of a year; some studies have found birds that migrate as much as 100 miles. While this is exceptional, it is clear that grouse need space, and lots of it.

That’s why the Crooked Creek basin, located 20 miles northwest of Dubois, Idaho, remains such a vital stronghold for sage grouse. Grouse in this valley still can migrate through unbroken stretches of sagebrush from Crooked Creek to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Some of the best populations of grouse in the West are found in this area.

In 2001, The Nature Conservancy purchased Crooked Creek Ranch to manage for sage grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species. Ecological monitoring has shown that the ranch is in excellent ecological condition and offers great habitat for several periods of the grouse’s annual needs.

But part of the success of the project depends on protecting large areas of habitat, since grouse do not recognize preserve boundaries. That’s why The Nature Conservancy purchased a ranch adjacent to the Crooked Creek Preserve, the Bezold Ranch, in June 2006.

The 1870-acre property, which includes almost two miles of Crooked Creek, will provide the water necessary for the restoration of sage grouse habitat on the land. The Nature Conservancy plans to identify a conservation buyer—who shares the organization’s conservation goals—to own and manage the property.

The new acquisition will provide an important expansion in this model sage grouse management project.

 “This acquisition is the perfect complement to the existing Crooked Creek Ranch Preserve, says Chet Work, East Idaho conservation manager for the Conservancy. “The Bezold property connects our existing protected lands to the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and will protect valuable wildlife habitat and corridors which previously were not protected.” 

The Conservancy plans to continue to focus its protection efforts in the Crooked Creek drainage and neighboring watersheds to connect the extensive habitat within the Idaho National Laboratory to the national forest and important private lands like the Bezold property.