Greater Sage-Grouse Winter Habitat in Idaho and Montana

Winter habitat for Greater Sage-Grouse mapped by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for a 2015 environmental impact statement. The data is limited to Idaho and defines winter as December 1 to February 28. It was published by the Department of the Interior and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify winter habitat boundaries for sage-grouse conservation area planning using the spatial polygon layer.
• Analyze overlap between nesting habitat and winter habitat for seasonal resource use studies using the included nesting habitat layer.
• Model species distribution in Idaho by integrating this habitat layer with environmental variables like elevation and snow pack data.
• Assess potential impacts of land use changes on sage-grouse by overlaying this habitat map with development or resource extraction plans.

Strengths

• Spatial data developed by a state wildlife agency (Idaho Department of Fish and Game) for a formal environmental impact statement.
• Includes nesting habitat layers that overlap with the defined winter habitat.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to Idaho, with no specific winter habitat data available for the Montana (Dillon Field Office) region.
• Winter habitat use is described as highly variable year-to-year due to snow pack, limiting the temporal generalizability of static maps.
• Elevation in certain areas (Raft River Unit, Utah) precludes habitat, but the dataset's direct coverage of these exclusions is unclear.

Provenance

Source

Idaho Department of Fish and Game, published via the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Collection Method

Spatial data mapping for the Idaho and Southwestern Montana Greater Sage-Grouse Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

Time Range

Analysis period centers on 2015, with winter defined as December 1 to February 28.

Freshness

Last updated in April 2026, though the underlying analysis is from a 2015 environmental impact statement.

Geography

Idaho, United States. Mentions southwestern Montana but data is limited to Idaho.