Growing cities in the West are having a harmful impact on sagebrush ecosystems.

That's the result of a new Boise State study - and it seems like it would be fairly obvious - cities are naturally going to encroach on woodlands. But the study found that more urban growth negatively impacted the quality of the nearby rangeland, not just the size. However, there was a silver lining to this study and it turned out Boise was part of it.

Trevor Caughlin, an Associate Professor of Biology at Boise State University, joined Idaho Matters to tell us more about the study.