SageCon update: legislature creates Mitigation Program In-Lieu-of-fee fund
SageCon (the Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership) has been an Oregon Solutions project since 2012. Recently, the 2021 Oregon Legislature passed HB 2069 establishing the Sage-Grouse Mitigation Program In-Lieu Fee Fund.
The Sage-Grouse Mitigation Program is one result of Oregon's sage-grouse conservation efforts among a diverse set of partners to advance a comprehensive approach to sage-grouse conservation. HB 2069 establishes the Sage-Grouse Mitigation Program In-Lieu Fee Fund in the Oregon State Treasury. It authorizes the continuous appropriation of fund moneys to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for supporting efforts to restore, protect, enhance, or increase habitat for sage-grouse.
In addition, the legislature passed SB 762, omnibus wildfire legislation, which has meaningful policy and funding outcomes for sagebrush, rangelands, and SageCon partner interests. Key provisions include the development of a new program at the Oregon Department of Forestry for addressing fire and habitat resilience (with rangelands specified), project funding opportunities for work focused on habitat restoration and underlying causes of fire risk (including invasive annual grasses), and more capacity for rangeland fire protection agencies.