The U.S. government
promoted programs to reduce and eradicate sagebrush on both public and
private lands throughout the 20th century. Sagebrush was torn out mechanically,
burnt and destroyed with chemical herbicides. Wheat and other crops, irrigated
pasture and non-native forage grasses replaced the sagebrush.
A significant amount of sagebrush habitat has been converted to agriculture.
More than 99 percent of critically important basin big sagebrush habitat
in the Snake River Plains of Idaho has been converted to croplands
and pastures;* altogether, 55 percent of sagebrush steppe has been lost
in Idaho.** Approximately 90 percent of sagebrush-steppe on the Columbia
Plateau in Oregon and eastern Washington has been convered to agriculture.***
Agriculture is even allowed in specially designated areas in the Sagebrush
Sea. Farmers and ranchers are allowed
to graze, hay, and even raise crops on the Cokeville Meadows National
Wildlife Refuge in southwest Wyoming. 
** Sands, A. R., S. Sather-Blair, V. Saab. 2000. Sagebrush steppe wildlife: historical and current perspectives. Pages 27-34 in P. G. Entwistle, A. M. Debolt, J. H. Kaltenecker, K. Steenhof (compilers). Proc. Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems Symposium; June 21-23, 1999; Boise State University, Boise, ID. Publ. no. BLM/ID/PT-0001001+1150. Bureau of Land Management. Boise, ID: 27 (citing Sharp and Sanders 1978).
*** Noss, R. F., E. T. La Roe, J. M. Scott. 1995. Endangered ecosystems of the United States: a preliminary assessment of loss and degradation. Biol. Report 28. USDI - National Biological Service. Washington, DC; The Nature Conservancy. 1992. Ecological charms among nuclear arms. Nature Conservancy 7/8: 34.
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