I crested the rocky butte, peering into the brushy valley below in search of wildlife. Nothing. How unusual. I had hiked to this spot dozens of times, and often spot dozens of mule deer feeding. From this vantage point, I’ve seen jackrabbits and pronghorns, sage grouse and coyotes. But today was quiet, almost eerily so. Then my eyes caught a flash of movement. Raising the binoculars, I saw a large form bounding through the sage. My first thought was deer. Then I saw a long tail. A very long tail. A mountain lion. It hit an open meadow and I enjoyed a few seconds before it disappeared. I’ve been exploring sagebrush country of the western United States for two decades now, and I’m still surprised by new wildlife sightings. I’ve heard people call sagebrush country “monotonous” and even a “wasteland,” but naturalists and conservationists know better. The “sagebrush sea” covers parts of 13 states in the West. Get out on foot and explore healthy habitat and you’ll find an amazing diversity of plants and animals. The healthy habitat is the key. This semidesert environment consists not only of sagebrush, but a mix of other shrubs, bunchgrasses and forbs. Such places – places like Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming, the Owyhee backcountry of southwestern Idaho and Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Oregon – are wonderlands for curious naturalists. But such places are becoming more difficult to find. More than 14 million acres of intact sagebrush habitat has been lost since 1998, most notably due to fires. Sagebrush is adapted to infrequent fires. But it’s slow to recover, and now invasive cheatgrass – which thrives with frequent fires – turns once diverse habitat into monocultures. Cool and Overlooked Critters of the Sagebrush Sea
