USGS mineral-resource assessment of Sagebrush Focal Areas in the western United States

Abstract

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists have completed an assessment of the mineral-resource potential of nearly 10 million acres of Federal and adjacent lands in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The assessment of these lands, identified as Sagebrush Focal Areas, was done at the request of the Bureau of Land Management. The assessment results will be used in the decision-making process that the Department of the Interior is pursuing toward the protection of large areas of contiguous sagebrush habitat for the greater sage-grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus ) in the Western United States. The detailed results of this ambitious study are published in the five volumes of USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5089 and seven accompanying data releases.