Western States threatened by sage grouse endangered listing

Otter said in an emailed statement that “Idaho does not believe that the greater sage grouse needs federal protections, and we’re hopeful that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaches that conclusion as well”.

Based on forecasts, researchers discovered that if the current wildfire trend does not decrease in force and intensity, a steady drop in populations can occur among more sage grouse living in the Great Basin region.

A study from 2013 projects that declaring the sage grouse as endangered would cost the us more than .6 billion in annual economic output.

“From a population ecology perspective, greater sage-grouse are an umbrella or indicator species for the ecological health and integrity of sagebrush ecosystems”.

The report released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey comes just ahead of a court-ordered September 30 deadline faced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide whether sage grouse need protection under the Endangered Species Act. Industries that pose threats to the land inhabited by the birds such as those that produce crude oil, coal, natural gas and beef could take a huge hit if the land in the 11 states where the bird now lives will be off-limits to them.

Joel Bousman, a Wyoming rancher and a Sublette County commissioner said to NPR, “When they listed the spotted owl in the Northwest, it literally devastated the counties and communities” whose economies depended on timber.

“Wildfire has been identified as a primary disturbance leading to shifts in ecosystem state and concomitant declines in sagebrush steppe obligate species in the Great Basin”, study reads. “Our fear here is it would have a similar impact on gas, grazing”. According to stats, they are now estimated to be somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000.

The sage grouse is a stocky bird with a long spiky tail and feathers to its toes. Through the Sage Grouse Initiative, which partners with ranchers and businesses, the agencies have imposed land restrictions that are less harsh than the ones that would be in place if the endangered designation is approved, but still protect sagebrush.

The report is also in line with an order by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in January calling for a new wildfire-fighting strategy using a “science-based” approach to protect wide swaths of the intermountain West sagebrush country that supports cattle ranching and sage grouse.

Jewell’s remarks are a “welcome development” if they indicate the agency is heading away from listing the sage grouse as endangered, said Jon Hanian, spokesman for Idaho Gov. Butch Otter.

“We know where the sage grouse are”. “The plans must be strengthened to ensure the bird and its habitat are protected”.