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The western portion of the sagebrush steppe is characterized by complex landownership patterns with mixes of federal, private, and to a lesser extent state-owned lands.� Conservation of greater sage-grouse habitat within this region requires engagement and agreement on a strategy from a diversity of stakeholders, given the large areas of intact habitat needed to support viable populations of this species. Habitat conservation must also play out in sagebrush landscapes that face complex and persistent ecosystem threats such as wildfire, invasive annual grasses, and conifer encroachment, which further highlight the importance of effective collaboration and resiliency of conservation effort among a diverse set of stakeholders. �Such ecosystem-based conservation efforts can be challenging because stakeholders are likely to have widely varying opinions and values associated with both the nature of habitat and the environmental and management factors which influence change.� Therefore, these efforts require a common and foundational understanding of habitat properties and ecological drivers of change that stakeholders can use to build a conservation vision of current conditions, desired conditions, and a strategy for achieving desired conditions.� As such, we have found the importance of simple mental models that possess these qualities increases for issues such as ecosystem-based wildlife conservation.�� Mental models allow us to understand, communicate, structure, and simplify highly complex reality.� We found that when people have a common point of reference for understanding a problem it is much easier to productively discuss and ultimately agree upon options for dealing with the problem.