Mama Sage

Sagebrush ecosystems make up a vast portion of lands in the arid mountain west; the cold desert. To passersby the land may look devoid of life, dry, and lacking productivity. In reality, sagebrush provide lodging and food to small and big game animals, rodents, reptiles, birds, and others. In fact, sagebrush is such an important ecosystem element, there is a sign just west of Carbon County at the Waltman Rest Area that describes sagebrush.

The first line on the sign reads like a poem, “Oh! Mama Sage. It seems endless, the sage: the rolling sage-covered Wyoming hills.” And continues to depict the importance of sagebrush to Wyoming wildlife. The last line reads, “Mama Sage” is a special part of the formula that makes our wildlife - worth the watching.”

It takes a resilient plant to be able to sustain with little precipitation, hot summers, cold winters, and lots of wind. The sagebrush’s root system, in part, helps to withstand these challenges. Sagebrush has both a shallow root system to reach surface soil moisture, and a long tap root to access moisture deep in the soil profile. The shallow roots also help provide moisture to shallow rooted plants growing near the sagebrush, one of the characteristics that make it a good “mama”. Sagebrush also has small leaves reducing surface area that can be dried out by heat and strong wind. However, despite these adaptations sagebrush can also be quite fragile.

In most of Wyoming, it is difficult for sagebrush to re-establish after disturbances to the landscape. Disturbances to the ecosystem create favorable growing conditions for invasive species, specifically cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). Cheatgrass can make it difficult to compete for resources, and also increases fire frequency. Fire is a natural occurrence in the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem that provides much needed age-diversity to the sagebrush stands, but the sagebrush are adapted to longer fire cycles that a non-native, annual grass ecosystem cannot provide. More frequent fires make quick re-establishment almost impossible (without human guided assistance) because most sagebrush species require a minimum of 35 years to recover.

Non-native, annual grass populations’ also reduce suitable habitat for the wildlife that depend on the sagebrush. However these annual grasses are not the only factors that have contributed to a reduction in the sagebrush-steppe. Historically sagebrush have not always been desirable species. Land managers at the turn of the last century also worked to reduce sagebrush populations through their management practices. In the latter half of the last century pinyon-pine and juniper have encroached on the sagebrush-steppe, and energy development has caused disturbances to the sagebrush-steppe ecosystems.

However because of fragmentation of the sagebrush-steppe, more research and mitigation strategies have been developed to gain better understanding of sagebrush and the positive contributions sagebrush has on the ecosystem it make up. Land managers, energy companies, and state and federal agencies are now working together to properly manage the sagebrush-steppe ensuring “Mama Sage” many more opportunities to provide for wildlife in Wyoming.