Issues

BLM Limits Land Leasing in Sage Grouse Habitat Region. This week, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a moratorium blocking oil, natural gas, and coal leasing on public lands that overlap with the Gunnison sage grouse in eastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Energy and other interest groups in the region expressed concern with the decision and its impact on economic development in the West. From Western Energy Alliance vice president Kathleen Sgamma:

“Federal land managers are putting in place very restrictive measures that will impact jobs and economic development in communities without good data showing that what they’re doing is going to be effective for the species…We’re looking at all the sage grouse plans BLM comes out with. We’re considering protesting them. If our comments continue to be ignored, at some point, legal action has to be contemplated.”

Western Energy Alliance and others also noted the impact this decision may have on future decisions surrounding the Greater sage grouse, whose habitat expands across eleven western states. BLM spokesman Steven Hall stated in theAssociated Press, “We don’t see as many conflicts between energy production and habitat protection with the Gunnison sage grouse as we do with the Greater sage grouse.”

In May 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) granted a six-month extension of the deadline for a final listing decision on the Gunnison sage grouse; a decision on the Greater sage grouse is expected in September 2015.

Lesser Prairie Chicken Debate Continues. Following a March 2014 decision to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), some energy producers in the habitat region are having difficulty maintaining their operations. Mark Hammerschmidt, a driller with Pelican Hill Oil and Gas, discussed in an article this week how the listing has impacted their operations in Oakley, Kansas – an area in the middle of the bird’s habitat region. He stated, “we’ve got guys on drilling units that don’t have jobs now, because there’s so many that have backed off.” Jim Carlson of the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition also stated this week, “The science doesn’t support the listing.”

Meanwhile, three conservation groups — Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, and the Defenders of Wildlife — filed a lawsuit against the FWS stating the threatened listing was not doing enough to protect the prairie chicken and its habitat. According to Erik Molvar of WildEarth Guardians, “Endangered status would prevent the kind of loopholes that the Fish and Wildlife Service built into the threatened status.” Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback expressed his disappointment with the lawsuit, stating “It is not surprising that these extremist environmental organizations would file a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., that effectively attempts to shut down the energy and agriculture economies of western Kansas.”

In the News

California fox species can be removed from endangered list, according to experts. Celebrity Café. Four subspecies of the California Channel Island fox, which was only added to the endangered list in 2004 can already be delisted, according to scientists. “We need to show that the Endangered Species Act works when it does. We need to have some in the plus column,” Garcelon told the Santa Barbara Independent.

Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Rare Southern California Flying Squirrel. Center For Biological Diversity (Press Release). The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the San Bernardino flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. This rare, truffle-eating flying squirrel is threatened by climate change, forest habitat destruction and predation by domestic cats. It has disappeared in recent decades from one of the two mountain ranges it lives in near Los Angeles.

Let Western states manage public lands, not bureaucrats in Washington. Washington Examiner (Op-Ed). We in the West know land uses are not zero-sum. The economic pie can grow to everyone’s benefit, and most public lands can be – and were meant to be – put to multiple, often complementary uses. Hunters use logging roads. Sage grouse use grazing lands. Energy development creates infrastructure, which in turn makes land more accessible to other users.

Boldra: ‘Farmers, ranchers are best conservationists’ (VIDEO). Hays Post. Three environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has not done enough to protect the lesser prairie chickens. The birds, native to Kansas and neighboring states, are now listed by the USFWS as a threatened species, which is a step below endangered. Kansas has joined Oklahoma in a federal lawsuit against the designation.

Sage-grouse researchers share their data in Elko. Elko Daily Free Press. Sage-grouse experts flocked to Elko this week to exchange the latest scientific data about a bird that has grabbed the attention of agency and industry alike. Every other year, the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies organizes a sage grouse and Colombian sharp tail grouse workshop to discuss everything from the birds’ biology to their ecosystem. The Elko Convention Center hosted the 29th annual event this year.

Chicken and Mouse Stir Debate in New Mexico. News Max. The announcement came just one day after the Fish and Wildlife Service declared the meadow jumping mouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, giving it greater habitat protection, but angering ranchers in a southern New Mexico county who are at odds with the federal government over water and property rights.

Protection Sought for Wild Horses under Endangered Species Act. Desert Independent. On June 10, 2014 the Friends of Animals (FoA) and The Cloud Foundation filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list North American wild horses on public lands as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The petition was filed because the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act (WHBA), which was passed in 1971, has failed to protect our wild horses. Six states have already lost their wild horse populations—Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Ranchers, agencies knuckle down to work of helping sage grouse. Bismarck Tribune. “The habitat up here anyway is probably better than it was 20 years ago. I don’t know what else we can do,” Rob Brooks said. “If they make the bird endangered, it’s not going to make me have more sage grouse, it’s just going to raise heck. Whatever restrictions they put on won’t bring anything back.”