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Some 12 million acres of native rangelands have been impacted by conifer encroachment in the Great Basin alone, with up to 90% of tree expansion having occurred in sagebrush ecosystems. Conifer encroachment is considered one of the primary stressors fragmenting habitat for greater sage-grouse; a species under consideration for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Since 2010, conservation partners through the Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) have been accelerating targeted conifer removal efforts near sage-grouse strongholds. In Oregon alone, SGI boosted annual tree removal 10-fold, helping ranchers remove juniper during the early stages of encroachment from 146,000 acres in just 4 years. A new scientific evaluation of SGI's strategic approach to conifer removal quantifies anticipated bird outcomes associated with tree removal and helps further inform solutions to this threat. Results of this study suggest sage-grouse incur population-level impacts at very low levels of encroachment, with no active leks remaining with more than 4% tree canopy cover on the landscape. Furthermore, significant opportunities exist to prevent further bird declines through proactive conservation. With an annual investment of $8.75 million, partners can potentially address the encroachment threat near all known Oregon leks within the next decade; an investment well within the scope of conservation already achieved. SGI and its partners are now taking this proactive solution rangewide by mapping the full extent of conifer encroachment threat and expanding tree removal implementation across private and public land ownerships.