Description: CORE AREA MAPPINGCore area mapping represents a proactive attempt to identify a set of conservation targets to maintain a viable and connected set of populations before the opportunity to do so is lost (Doherty et al. 2010). This approach identifies and targets the most productive landscapes while including only a fraction of their occupied range. Maps are typically based on breeding bird densities as derived from the combination of lek counts and lek densities (Doherty et al. 2010). However, inclusion of seasonal use ranges and known connectivity corridors are commonly used to supplement breeding bird density in the development of core areas (e.g. Hagen 2011). Considering SD’s sage-grouse distribution is limited and on the edge of the species range, we identified a liberal area for inclusion in our core areas. We selected all leks (including most leks within 4 miles of SD border in other states) which have had at least 2 males for one of the last five years and buffered them at a distance of 4 miles. We did not use the traditional definition of an active lek (at least two males for two of the last five years) because not all leks are counted annually. This buffer distance is estimated to encompass >90% of sage-grouse nests (Kaczor 2008). Because sage-grouse in SD do not exhibit long migrations, we used all bird locations from Swanson (2009) to identify high use areas and important connectivity corridors. Most of these locations were from Butte County. The final map was developed using a combination of lek buffers, high use areas, connectivity corridors and expert opinion including collaboration among bordering states. South Dakota’s sage-grouse core area encompasses 982,834 surface acres, most (76%) of which is privately owned. Nearly all of the publicly owned surface acres are owned by SD Department of School and Public Lands (SPL) or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (Table 1). The SD GFP and United States Forest Service (USFS) have minimal surface ownership of the core area.
Copyright Text: This data would not be available in spatial format without the cooperation of the wildlife biologists of South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks and Bureau of Land Management.