Adopt-a-Lek Project Aids Sage Grouse - Brief Article

National Wildlife, Oct-Nov, 2001

IT'S TOUGH WORK, arising before dawn in the early spring to travel to remote areas in search of leks, or communal breeding grounds, where male sage grouse strut their stuff to attract females. But it's a labor of love for some 40 volunteers who have signed on to an Adopt-a-Lek project sponsored by NWF and its state affiliates in Montana, Nevada and Wyoming.

The volunteers, who range from kids to retirees, count the males present at a lek--an important gauge of population trends--and measure the quantity and quality of sagebrush cover and the understory grasses that are critical to successful nesting. The data they collect will assist the states in developing and implementing recovery programs for sage grouse, which have declined dramatically over much of their range.