Sage grouse debate a call to unity for Western states

[Ithaca 37]

Edition Date: 12-12-2004
It doesn't make sense to add the sage grouse to the federal endangered species list when its numbers are holding steady — or even increasing — across much of the West.

Westerners deserve the chance to prove they can make good decisions that ensure the sage grouse's survival.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service panel recommended this month that the sage grouse not receive protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fish and Wildlife Director Steve Williams gets the final say; his decision is due Dec. 29. But since Williams has never overridden the biological panel in three years on the job, the group's recommendation packs a lot of influence.

The decision will affect everything from grazing and oil and gas development to hunting and motorized recreation across 150 million acres of the West — a land mass nearly three times as large as the entire state of Idaho. It's no wonder some people have compared the sage grouse issue to the federal listing of the northern spotted owl, which pitted loggers against conservationists in a bitter debate over the Northwest's old-growth forests.

Science backs up biologists' sage grouse recommendations. Science also provides a clear call to action to the West's land and wildlife managers — and to Westerners who make their living or recreate on a shrinking sea of sagebrush.

Sage grouse populations declined by a steep 3.5 percent a year from 1965 to 1985. Since then, the decline has slowed to 0.37 percent a year; in several states, including Idaho, the numbers are stable or improving. The slowing decline remains troubling, but it suggests the states and federal agencies are having some success preserving the sage grouse and should be allowed the time to sustain it.

Habitat is in clear decline; even 150 million acres of sagebrush represent only half of the grouse's former range. Clearly, the West has to make the most of this habitat. It's a dual challenge: saving the good habitat and fixing the poor habitat, said Jack Connelly, a sage grouse expert with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in Pocatello.

Endangered species status carries with it federal rules that would protect the grouse and restrict human activity. The very specter of listing gives Westerners reason to mitigate threats to the sage grouse's future. In parts of the West, the problem is cheatgrass that pushes aside the sagebrush that provides grouse with food and cover. Rapid growth in and around cities such as Boise could encroach on habitat — especially if roads, power lines and wind farms follow. The Bush administration's push for 29,000 new oil and gas leases by 2005 threatens a "super train wreck" in states such as Wyoming, said John Freemuth, a Boise State University political science professor.

The West is in this together. If the populations crash in Wyoming or any other state, the feds may have to take another look at putting the sage grouse on the endangered species list across the region. It's critical for state and local groups in 11 states to keep the grouse out of peril. There is no one solution for saving the sage grouse, Connelly said. These working groups provide a good process for crafting the variety of local solutions needed for a successful recovery.

"If you want to avoid the heavy hammer of the (Endangered Species Act), there is a lot of pressure to get things done on the ground," Freemuth said.

If the feds keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list, they won't be granting Westerners a reprieve nor an excuse to do nothing. Fish and Wildlife would instead afford Westerners an opportunity they can't afford to squander.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041212/NEWS0501/412120320/1052/NEWS05

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Editing of grouse report may cloud listing decision

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Edition Date: 12-12-2004
The sage grouse debate is controversial enough. The federal government didn't need to buy itself even more heat by editing a scientific report on the grouse's prospects for survival.

Julie McDonald, an Interior Department lawyer and engineer, added some scientific references to the report and deleted other parts of the report. The document — in both its edited and unedited forms — went to a scientific panel that now recommends keeping the sage grouse off the federal endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide by Dec. 29 whether to follow that advice. The ill-advised editing job could cloud that decision — and give environmentalists ammunition in court if they sue.

Editing a scientific report to add more data is fine, said John Freemuth, a Boise State University political science professor specializing in environmental issues. But deleting material has a chilling effect and makes it harder to understand where the scientific community disagrees.

The editing job was "half justified and half nonsense," Freemuth said. Given the sensitivity of this issue — and the likelihood of a lawsuit — that may not be good enough.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041212/NEWS0501/412120321/1052/NEWS05

 

[Leet]

37,

The sage grouse does not seem to be doing too well down in this area in large part thanks to the all the goddamn drilling going on. Where we used to see flocks of them them you are lucky to see one nowadays. I moved here from Id a couple of years ago and they seem to be doing okay up there and we hunted in southern Wy. this fall and saw a few there. I hope that something constructive can be done besides play political football with them. Can you imagine how our wildlife would be doing if we didn't get any help from all those experts from back east? What a concept? Wonder if they would like some wolves and lions in the back yards on the Potomac? How are the sage birds doing there by you?

 

[Ithaca 37]

I hunt mostly in SW Idaho and SE Oregon. I rarely see sage grouse anymore where I used to see hundreds. I can only hope that the threat of having the sage grouse listed will still be taken seriously enough so that ranchers and developers will try to help increase the population.

 

[1_pointer]

I think the possibility of the listing has been having quite the effected I wanted, and that is folks of all walks are being proactive. In No. UT, there are many a project in the works to help the sagegrouse. The biggest hurdle now is that that many of the projects help out other things as well, that being cattle. Lawsuits have been filed to stop these projects just because they have some benefit to cattle, even though the sagegrouse (and to a lesser extent pygmy rabbit) was the focus of the plan. Good sagegrouse habitat and productive grazing lands are not mutually exclusive.

 

[JoseCuervo]

The stage is set for a legal battle between environmentalists and the government over recovery efforts to save a native bird
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To many, the sage grouse is a symbol of the open, sagebrush-covered West and an ideal game bird.

More recently, it's become the center of a well-financed legal imbroglio with a lot at stake for hunters, environmentalists, ranchers, the mining industry and fat-assed ATV riders.

The battle started a year ago, when two environmental groups filed a petition with the federal government to have the species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

On Dec. 3, Interior Department biologists recommended against listing sage grouse. Steve Williams, director of the department's Fish and Wildlife Service, will review the recommendation before making a decision by Dec. 29 on whether to propose the species for listing.

If Williams rules as anticipated, against protecting sage grouse, environmental groups would likely follow through on threats to take the issue to court.


Both sides argue science supports their polar-opposite viewpoints about sage grouse.

Environmentalists will tell you the federal recommendation has more to do with political science than science and saving dollars than saving a native bird.

"The best available science would suggest they're at 8 percent of their historic numbers," said Mark Salvo, director of the Chandler, Ariz.-based Sagebrush Sea Campaign, a project of Western Watersheds.

Jon Marvel, executive director of the Hailey-based environmental group Western Watersheds, said more than half of Idaho's original sage grouse habitat is now gone.

"Anybody whose interested in hunting sage grouse ought to be interested in protecting sage grouse habitat. You can't hunt a bird if it can't live," Marvel said. "(Opponents of protecting sage grouse) know if sage grouse were listed, the scrutiny would be on the condition of sage grouse habitat in Idaho. That scrutiny wouldn't result in a very favorable outcome of listing for them."

Talk with an Idaho cattleman or a Department of Interior official and you'll hear how the sage grouse population, currently estimated at between 142,000 and 500,000 birds across its range, has stabilized.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the sage grouse population declined by 3.5 percent per year from 1965 to 1985, and the decline slowed to 0.37 percent from 1986 to 2003.

Romero has a degree in wildlife biology and serves on a sage grouse state working group. He also advises the Idaho Cattlemen's Association on issues pertaining to sage grouse.

"This is political with those (environmentalists)," Romero said. "They don't want to protect the birds as much as they want to take cattle off the rangeland."

Romero said it was a banner year for sage grouse in Owyhee County, and he's never seen the birds fare so well on the public and private land he ranches there.

He believes most ranchers are like him - their families started their ranches in the 1860s, and they don't over-utilize their land.

"For the most part, ranchers are in it for the long haul, and the only way you can do that is manage your resource and manage it properly," Romero said. "If you look at the BLM records, the rangeland health overall has improved. We have problems with fire and noxious weeds. Those are problems we can deal with."

Idaho's congressional delegation and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne agree with the Department of Interior biologists' recommendation.

"The benefit of good science is that it leads to informed decisions like this one," Kempthorne said, according to a press release. "Idaho has been working diligently on plans that will form a framework for the protection of the species in Idaho. In conjunction with local working groups around the state, Idaho will help foster the success of the species well into the future as it balances the needs of the people who share the same habitat."

In a joint press release, Sen. Larry Craig and Rep. Mike Simpson, both R-Idaho, also lauded the recommendation and said $300,000 they helped secure in the omnibus appropriations bill for sage grouse recovery in Idaho will help with several projects.

"As we have known all along, sage grouse are thriving in Idaho and in the West," Craig said.

Simpson added, "I commend all those involved who under serious pressure from extreme environmental groups were able to assess the scientific data and come to the accurate conclusion."

Ted Chu, a retired Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologist, spent a career studying sage grouse. He's an avid sage grouse hunter who serves on a state-wide sage grouse working group.

He's concerned about threats to the bird's habitat and the potential for an outbreak of West Nile virus.

"In Idaho, if we want to avoid a listing some time in the future, we really need to manage our public lands primarily with sage grouse as a priority," Chu said. "That's not being done."

Chu is sure listing the bird would have serious financial consequences for many interest groups and industries. But he believes there is a third, middle-ground option which has been ignored - listing the sage grouse as warranted but precluded.

A warranted but precluded listing acknowledges an animal faces enough threats that it should be listed but also recognizes financial limitations preclude a listing for the time being.

"The finding they came up with says everything is fine, which simply isn't true," Chu said. "I'm a little surprised they ignored the science and went to the other extreme saying the bird is not threatened or endangered."

Chu believes a warranted but precluded listing would keep the pressure on working groups to continue efforts to help sage grouse due to the future potential for listing.

"It would have forced those people involved in extractive or other economically based activities on public land to look at, and perhaps modify, some of those activities to help sage grouse and to head off a listing," Chu said.

Between 1970 and 1999, Chu analyzed sage grouse populations in the northern Magic Valley and southeast Idaho.

During that period, especially in the final 15 years of his career, Chu said the population decline was alarming.

In many places, he said populations dropped by 50 to 90 percent during that period.

"The trend for a long time has been loss of sagebrush habitat, which is, of course, what sage grouse absolutely require," Chu said.

Of the five criteria for listing a species - loss of habitat, threatened loss of habitat, threat of disease, predation and inadequacy of regulatory mechanisms - Chu believes the sage grouse qualifies for protection in three categories.

Chu said fires, mining, off-road vehicles, grazing, agriculture and development have claimed the majority of the bird's former habitat. He said West Nile virus is also a real concern.

"Recently, there's been quite a bit of emphasis placed on fire management and retaining sagebrush habitat," Chu said, adding cheat grass and other invasive species often take over burned areas. "It's a relatively new emphasis, but the agencies are doing what they can with limited funding."

Romero said the Owyhee County working group proves working groups are effective and the best option for sage grouse population.

He said his group was instrumental in enacting a sage grouse stamp to raise funds for habitat conservation projects and surveys. His group has also conducted a winter habitat survey, six radiotelemetry studies and two reseeding projects.

Each sage grouse habitat has unique issues, Romero said, and working groups enable management to be done on a case-by-case basis. The groups include members of a wide range of interests, so their recommendations carry broad-based support, he said.

He attributes past declines in sage grouse numbers to liberal hunting seasons, which he said have since been drastically shortened or eliminated in some areas.

"Since the seasons were restricted in the mid-1990s, the populations have stabilized. The potential to overharvest sage grouse is there," Romero said, adding sage grouse are long-lived birds which typically nest only once per year.

Nonetheless, if sage grouse were truly in trouble, Romero argues top Idaho biologists would ban hunting altogether.

Marvel, whose Western Watersheds group cosigned the petition to list the bird, isn't sold on working groups alone. They have power only to advise, and Marvel believes the federal government has already demonstrated it will side with big business over conserving native plants and animals.

His approach to conserving habitat, sage grouse and other native wildlife is to bid on as many grazing leases as possible to get cattle off of public lands.

"When it comes to administering public lands, the Bush administration opposes all efforts to bring in competition," Marvel said. "Their goal is not only to prevent the listing of sage grouse, but also to gut all of the environmental laws that protect our air, water and land."

As for the possibility of continued hunting after a listing, Marvel points to success stories with salmon and steelhead, which were listed as protected but still retain a fishing season.

Marvel is confident protection for sage grouse is an issue which will be debated at length in the courts and is far from being decided simply because of a federal recommendation.

"The Endangered Species Act is a very strong law. I think the Bush administration is at risk here because of the level of information available on scientific literature on sage grouse," Marvel said. "The scientific data doesn't go away because the Bush Administration tries to make it go away."