Sagebrush Sea

The Sagebrush Sea (scientifically known as “sagebrush steppe”) covers approximately 110 million acres of the American West, making it one of the most extensive landscapes in North America. The heart of the Sagebrush Sea is shaped by the Columbia River Basin, the Great Basin, the Wyoming Basin and the Colorado Plateau.

The Sagebrush Sea is a landscape of dramatic contrasts and subtlety. While to some the dry, rocky hillsides and apparently endless bluffs of sage, juniper, piñon, mountain mahogany, and bitterbrush appear monotonous and "barren," they team with wildflowers, aromatic and flowering shrubs, birds and a great variety of other animals.

The Sagebrush Sea is expansive country — "open space" now prized by so many Americans. The horizon extends for 360 degrees and the sky arches over cedar, mustard-yellow and sea-green slopes. Pronghorn race across huge grassy basins and bighorn sheep balance on steep cliff sides. The landscape features lakes, rivers, streams, springs and wetlands, hot springs, salt flats, dunes, volcanic rock formations and mountain ranges.

The Sagebrush Sea is home to a remarkable variety of sagebrush species and subspecies. Approximately 21 varieties of sagebrush grow from sea level to nearly 12,000 feet and in areas that receive as little as eight inches of annual precipitation. Sagebrush leaves remain green year round, providing a vital food source for wildlife. Under natural conditions, sagebrush grows in delicate balance with other high desert plant species, including dozens of varieties of trees, shrubs, grasses and wild flowers.

A mosaic of Sagebrush Sea habitats supports more than 250 terrestrial vertebrate species, including over 100 bird species and 70 mammals. Sagebrush obligate species (wildlife that depend on sagebrush habitats during the breeding season or year-round) include greater sage-grouse, Gunnison sage-grouse, sage sparrow, Brewer’s sparrow, sage thrasher, pygmy rabbit, sagebrush vole, sagebrush lizard, and pronghorn.

Historically, the Sagebrush Sea covered more than 150 million acres in western North America, and was perhaps as large as 243 million acres, covering parts of what became 16 states and three Canadian provinces. Despite its size, the Sagebrush Sea is one of the most endangered landscapes in North America. Sagebrush steppe has been reduced by as much as 50 percent since European settlement. Livestock grazing, agricultural conversion, oil and gas development, roads, fences, powerlines and pipelines, off-road vehicles, mining, urban sprawl, unnatural fire, and invasive species are destroying or degrading what remains.

WildEarth Guardians’ Sagebrush Sea Campaign (www.sagebrushsea.org) focuses public attention and conservation resources on protecting and restoring the vast sagebrush-steppe landscape in the American West. The campaign participates in public lands management planning, advocates for natural resource protection, and uses education, research, legislation and litigation to conserve and restore the Sagebrush Sea for present and future generations.

Our goals include protecting sagebrush obligate species under the Endangered Species Act, designating sagebrush reserves on public lands, and retiring federal grazing permits in the Sagebrush Sea.

See also our Western Grouse Project for more information about sage-grouse.