Issues
Interior Secretary Visits Colorado to Discuss Sage Grouse. This week, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ashe visited Colorado to tour sage grouse habitat and see how ranchers are working to protect the species in the region. The officials visited rancher Ray Owens and his 16,000 acre conservation spread at Bord Gulch Ranch. Secretary Jewell congratulated Owens on his private efforts to protect the sage grouse in the Colorado Observer:
“‘Ray Owens is a model of the 21st century western rancher with his outstanding stewardship of this working landscape,’ Jewell said in a statement after the visit. ‘He represents the spirit of partnership that can be replicated across the West as we develop landscape-level strategies to lessen the threats to the sage grouse and conserve its habitat,’ Jewell said.”
Following the tour, Secretary Jewell joined Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and other local officials and residents to discuss the visit and potential sage grouse plans. Colorado Republican Rep. Scott Tipton, who has urged the Secretary to visit Colorado in the past, noted he was hopeful her visit would provide further evidence that state and local efforts underway to protect the bird are working. According to the Colorado Observer:
“Tipton said in a statement that he was hopeful Jewell would use what she learned during the visit to determine that local and state efforts already underway to protect the grouse have been successful without the federal ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. ‘The success of the efforts underway to preserve the sage grouse stems from locally-tailored plans that take into account the unique topography and ecology of the region in order to best preserve the species that call it home,’ Tipton said.”
Following his tour, Director Ashe also stated in the Craig Daily Press the greater sage grouse is “still in relatively good shape” so an endangered determination is unlikely. Still, concerns remain high that new regulations could have an impact on farming, ranching, and energy development in the region. A federal threatened or endangered listing would impact nearly two million acres of land in Colorado, including 75 percent of Moffat County. Last week Gov. Hickenlooper sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) noting the current proposed plan for protecting the grouse is not acceptable. The letter was critical of BLM’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to conserving the grouse population, as well as various aspects of the plan including its use of disturbance caps as a conservation measure as an “untested management approach.”
Bi-State Population of Sage Grouse Continues to Concern Nevadans. County officials in Nevada gathered recently to discuss the impacts of a federal listing for the bi-state population of the Greater sage grouse in portions of the state. Commission Chairman Joe Mortensen of Fernley stated he left the meeting feeling there was strong agreement that “we must do anything in our power trying to prevent the (Endangered Species Act) listing of the sage-grouse.” Charlie Myers, Elko County Commissioner, echoed this sentiment in an opinion column in the Elko Daily Free Press:
“Elko County lost a portion of the China Wind Project that was to be built in the Northeastern part of our county directly due to sage grouse. The deferment of that project cost the tax payers of Elko an estimated $1.8 million a year in tax revenue. The deferment of 160,000 acres of BLM managed land was removed from oil/gas lease consideration for an unspecified period of time due to the sage grouse and sage grouse habitat. Revenue that would have been realized is lost forever, plus any jobs that would have come from the exploration and extraction. … Listing the sage grouse will cost many of our industries much more money than it does now to do business on public land. This can have a negative impact on hiring, expansion, ranching and economic development.”
Meanwhile, a deal to preserve 3,800 acres of prime sage grouse habitat in southern Douglas County, Nevada was announced this week after four years of negotiations between ranch owners and state and federal agencies. The deal will set aside portions of the Fairfield Ranch through a conservation easement program to protect the area from development while maintaining the sage grouse habitat in the region. Tony Wasley, director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, stated in the Reno Gazette Journal, “this easement has significant conservation value and is important to the long-term viability of sage grouse in the bi-state area.”
IPAA and Others Send Recommendations on the Greater Sage Grouse. Last week, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), the Western Energy Alliance, the American Petroleum Institute (API), the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) and others sent a letter of recommendations regarding the Greater Sage-Grouse to Governor John Hickenlooper (D-CO) regarding the state’s alternative management approach for the future management of Greater Sage-Grouse populations and habitat on federal lands in northwest Colorado. According to the associations’ letter:
“The state has an opportunity to convince the federal agencies that rather than imposing overly prescriptive restrictions that may not be suitable for actual on-the-ground conditions, they should pursue a science-based, adaptive management approach and include technical experts from industry who are intimately familiar with technology, operations, and mitigation. Rather than the proposed one-size-fits-all restrictions, active consultation between the state and federal agencies would be a more effective approach.
“This consultation process would also provide the opportunity for local working groups, made up of state and federal agency personnel, stakeholders, and local government representatives, to provide input on future management decisions. We strongly believe that the agencies must rectify the identified issues with the DEIS, and we view the state’s efforts to provide a Colorado Alternative as important to the process.”
The letter highlighted various recommendations for the state surrounding issues including the disturbance cap concept, noise, buffers around leks, reclamation, and monitoring. The signing associations believe the incorporation of these recommendations and strategies will help provide a balanced approach to conserve the bird while supporting continued energy development in the state. You can read the full letter on the ESA Watch website HERE.
In the News
Sage Grouse: Problem Child. Glasgow Courier (Guest Column by John Brenden, State Senator). The Sage Grouse right now is the latest problem child. The federal government under the guise of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, with the great assistance of big environmental groups, is attempting to list this bird as an endangered species. There is no shortage of this bird in Montana (confirmed by Montana FWP), but because there are fewer birds than in other states the feds want to put this onus on Montana as well!
Easement protects valuable sage grouse habitat in Northern Nevada. Reno Gazette-Journal. Some 3,800 acres of ranchland and prime sage grouse habitat in southern Douglas County will be preserved under a deal announced Wednesday by conservationists. Parts of the Fairfield Ranch — which straddles nearly 3 miles of the West Walker River — will be preserved from potential development through a conservation easement that will also protect vital habitat for a unique subspecies of sage grouse that lives only along the Nevada-California line.
Wind Permits Allowing Eagle Deaths Face Blowback. National Journal. An ongoing battle over an Interior Department rule-making that allows wind-energy producers to kill bald and golden eagles without prosecution has created a rift between environmental advocates and the wind industry.
Looking for common ground on the Endangered Species Act. The Denver Post (Editorial). The Endangered Species Act is a valuable tool in wildlife preservation, but it can be a blunt instrument, too, with sometimes stark economic consequences for those living in a habitat area. Hence Gov. John Hickenlooper’s lively interest of late in management of the greater sage grouse in northwestern Colorado. Not only is the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service considering the sage grouse for protection under the act, but the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Managment has proposed a management plan that state officials consider unduly restrictive in part.
Lesser Prairie Chicken most studied bird on the High Plains. Leader & Times. The Lesser Prairie Chicken is a species in the grouse family, with about half of its current population living in western Kansas and the other half in the sandhills and prairies of western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, eastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the species “vulnerable” due to its restricted and patchy range, and it is also vulnerable to habitat destruction.
U.S. agency to consider endangered species protections for emperor penguin. Wisconsin Gazette. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today (Jan. 22) said the emperor penguin may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The most ice-dependent of all penguin species, emperor penguins are threatened by the loss of their sea-ice habitat and declining food availability off Antarctica, according to a statement from the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
