DO TRANSLOCATED GREATER SAGE-GROUSE IN CENTRAL WASHINGTON SELECT MESIC PATCHES AS SUMMER HABITAT?

Abstract Summer brood-rearing habitat is important for sustaining populations of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Although Sage-Grouse in many populations move to more mesic sites during the late brood-rearing period, some populations do not select for these resources as strongly. We used generalized linear mixed models to evaluate the locations of 51 Sage-Grouse hens in the Crab Creek Management Unit in central Washington State. We compared their proximity to mesic patches with that of a set of random locations. We further compared the distance to mesic patches between brooding and non-brooding hens, wet and dry years, and early and late seasons. Sage-Grouse hens did not show any greater affinity to mesic patches than random, nor did brooding hens show greater affinity to mesic patches than non-brooding hens. Further, Sage-Grouse hens did not show any greater proximity to mesic patches in dry years compared to wet years, nor did they appear to move closer to mesic patches later in the summer. To evaluate differences in mesic and upland forage resources for Sage-Grouse, we measured percent cover and richness of forbs, along with overall horizontal cover, at 23 paired transects in mesic and upland sites. We found that whereas the cover of highly preferred forbs was higher in mesic sites, there was no difference between habitat types when moderately preferred forbs were also considered. Forb richness was higher in upland sites. We suggest that upland sites may have sufficient forb cover and richness for foraging translocated Sage-Grouse in the Crab Creek area during the brooding season.