Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-grouse Habitat project team members honored

Bruneau-Owyhee Sage-grouse Habitat project team members honored with the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Federal Conservation Partner of the Year Award

Jun 16, 2025

Written By

Ally Turner

Four people are standing in the frame. From left to right, there is a woman with a yellow sweater and brown hair, then a man in a blue blazer holding a plaque award, next to another man holding an award, and the last person is a woman in a white blazer with salt and pepper colored hair.

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At the spring 2025 in Provo, Utah the group received the 2025 WAFWA Federal Conservation Partner of the Year award. Nominated by the Idaho Fish and Game Department, Josh White and Alex Webb, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service biologists for the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, and Conner White with Pheasants Forever were honored for their leadership, professionalism, and tireless work on rangeland projects in the Owyhee Mountains in southwest Idaho.

The WAFWA Federal Conservation Partner of the Year award is presented to a federal agency, an entity or unit of a federal agency, or an employee of a federal agency that has proven to be a strong WAFWA partner and conducted exemplary work to help advance or favorably impact a WAFWA project, program, initiative, policy position or working relationship that has been beneficial to WAFWA and its member agencies. Further, it recognizes exemplary achievements in building and strengthening conservation partnerships that align with the goals, objectives, and priorities of the WAFWA mission.

A brown rolling hill landscape can be seen in the foreground, speckled with green trees. Blue sky can be seen in the background.

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In addition to their technical contributions, White, Webb, and White are exemplary collaborators with private landowners and local, state, and federal agencies. Their hard work and long-term commitment to the landscape and the people within it has helped conserve the iconic Bruneau-Owyhee landscape and will benefit generations to come.

There are several juniper removal projects in the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho for which the group was recognized. One example, the BOSH project, is a 617,000-acre project that has so far restored over 300,000 acres, with the goal to improve rangeland conditions and restore habitat for wildlife by removing juniper trees that have been crowding out the sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States�� sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.

Learn more about sagebrush steppe landscape for decades.