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Two areas of Rich County, Utah (Three Creeks and Deseret Land and Livestock [DLL]) have experienced different sage-grouse population trends over the last 20 years. Three Creeks is made up of three BLM allotments. These allotments have had season-long low density grazing. Six miles south of the Three Creeks is DLL. DLL is largely private and has employed since 1978 an adaptive grazing strategy that provides enough growing season rest for plant recovery. During the active growing season, a quarter of DLL's pastures are rested. The grazing is shorter in duration with much higher density than Three Creeks. The stocking rate of cattle at DLL in 2010, a near average precipitation year, was 4.4 Acres/AUM. This includes the 23% of the area that was rested. The Three Creeks stocking was adjudicated at 6.75 Acres/AUM.  We assessed the functional ground cover characteristics using a remote sensing method. At DLL, the sagebrush cover and bare ground was significantly less and the herbaceous cover was significantly more than Three Creeks. Heterogeneity of sagebrush cover was also greater on DLL. Sage-grouse numbers at DLL had four times more males per lek, and the density was nearly twice as great as Three Creeks. Further comparisons showed sagebrush treatments having both positive and negative effects on sage-grouse numbers depending on size of treatment.