Sagebrush Council directs staff to update PMU maps to match new habitat science

The Sagebrush Ecosystem Council voted unanimously April 16 to direct staff to work with the Nevada chapter of the Society for Range Management (ENDOW) and other partners to update the councils PMU and BSU boundaries so those planning layers better align with the U.S. Geological Surveys updated habitat-management-area (HMA) maps.

The motion, moved by Kyle Davis and seconded by Sherm Swanson, instructs council staff to develop proposed new PMU/BSU shapefiles, seek public and stakeholder input, and return to the council with a recommendation. The council approved the proposal without opposition.

Why it mattered: council and agency staff told members that the USGS HMA mapping now shows significant patches of modeled habitat that fall outside the CCSs service area (the PMU/BSU polygons currently used to compute proximity factors and credit/debit calculations). That mismatch has caused confusion when proponents consult with BLM, because BLMs RMP amendment uses updated HMA layers while the CCS has, to date, clipped habitat to the older PMU/BSU footprint.

"Were seeing modeled habitat sitting outside our PMUs," Kathleen Steel, council staff, said during the discussion. "Proponents are getting different answers depending on which map staff use, and were trying to decide whether to expand our service area or update the PMUs and BSUs to align with the new science."

Justin Small of ENDOW told the council that PMUs were never intended to operate at the resolution of modern HMA products and that new telemetry- and remote-sensing-derived layers (the ASUI/HQT layers) provide a higher-resolution picture of habitat selection and use. "The PMU boundaries arent set in stone; they can be updated to accommodate the science," he said.

What the motion asks staff to do: staff were directed to collaborate with ENDOW to prepare updated PMU and BSU layers, document the rationale for changes, run implications for CCS proximity factors and credit calculations, and design a stakeholder review process so counties and other partners can flag specific areas that should be adjusted or excluded on practical grounds.

The council also discussed a short-term fallback: if ENDOW could not produce updated PMUs in a timely way, staff would consider a temporary "other" service-area category that would capture HMAs outside existing PMUs to avoid persistent mapping mismatch while a longer technical process ran.

Next steps: staff will return to the council with draft mapping updates and a proposed stakeholder outreach schedule. The council asked staff to include a side-by-side comparison of current and proposed maps and to document any implications for ongoing CCS transactions.

Provenance: The discussion started during the agenda item on population-management-unit changes and mapping alignment (SEC meeting transcript SEG 2746) and concluded with the motion and vote (SEG 4242-4243).