NATIONAL

Sage grouse listing must be avoided to protect energy industry. Billings Gazette, IPAA President and CEO Barry Russell. In November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Gunnison sage-grouse, a bird that resides in sagebrush lands across Colorado and Utah, as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Many landowners and involved stakeholders, who voluntarily implemented conservation measures on their property to protect the bird, were not only disappointed with the decision, but also fearful of what it could mean for future ESA listing decisions by the Obama administration – especially as it relates to the greater sage-grouse. While the recently passed funding bill by Congress may have bought more time for the greater sage-grouse – preventing the federal government from potentially listing the bird until after September 2015 – the debate over this iconic bird in the West is far from over.

The sage grouse might not be listed as an endangered species after all. Washington Post. Western governors expressed some optimism on Sunday that the federal Fish and Wildlife Service might decide against including a rare bird on the Endangered Species List after years of work aimed at protecting millions of acres of habitat. In a meeting Sunday with governors representing Western states, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was “guardedly optimistic,” according to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), that plans developed and implemented by several states will keep the sage grouse off the ESA. “She expressed to me optimism that they were going to be able to avoid listing” the sage grouse, Hickenlooper said in an interview at the annual meeting of the National Governors Association.

Critical moment for sage grouse. Casper Star Tribune, Editorial. We’re at a critical moment in the future of the sage grouse. In September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide whether to list the animal, a chicken-sized bird, as endangered. That listing comes with a host of restrictions, all based on making the listed animal the top priority. That would leave Wyoming, which has been succeeding in a complicated balancing act involving its energy resources and its native species, in a tight spot. It also comes with the potential for lawsuits, as groups with competing interests challenge the decision in court.

CALIFORNIA

Expanded protected area for orcas to be studied. Monterey Herald. On Monday, the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, announced it would consider expanding the critical habitat of the southern resident killer whales, the only community of orcas protected by the Endangered Species Act. But it won’t decide whether to recommend the expansion until 2017, citing the need for further studies of the whales’ range.

IDAHO

Idaho proposes sage grouse protections on additional state lands. E&E News (sub req’d). The state of Idaho has proposed a new conservation plan to protect some of the most important greater sage grouse habitat in the state, in an ongoing effort to prevent the bird from being listed for federal protection. The draft plan, developed by the Idaho Department of Lands, would still allow for numerous activities on the endowment lands, such as oil and gas development and wind farms, grazing and mining. But it would impose lease stipulations, such as a slightly more than half-mile buffer around leks, and the adoption of best management practices, such as noise limits on drilling activity to protect the bird. It also focuses on addressing threats to grouse habitat from wildfires and invasive plant and animal species.

KANSAS

Common sense can go long way in Capitol, Moran says. High Plains Journal. U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran was in Dodge City, Kansas, as part of a southwest Kansas town hall listening tour on Feb. 16 that followed his attendance at a Dodge City Rotary Club meeting. One topic that quickly emerged was a process in which a federal agency determines a species is threatened or endangered and its impact upon those who live in an area determined to be prime habitat. The listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken as a threatened species in 2014 has hurt farming and ranching activities as well as utility and energy development.

MICHIGAN

Blowback: Wind farms run afoul of neighbors, regulators. Detroit Free Press. As Michigan increasingly banks on wind power to drive the expansion of its renewable energy portfolio, wind farm projects are increasingly stirring up turbulence with the people next door to the turbines. Residents who formed the neighborhood group Garden Peninsula Foundation filed a federal lawsuit against Traverse City-based Heritage Sustainable Energy and the Fish and Wildlife Service last month, alleging Heritage’s Garden Wind Farm in the peninsula’s farmlands will kill protected and endangered species such as the Kirtland’s warbler, piping plover and the northern long-eared bat.

NEW JERSEY

Oyster growers get brief reprieve. Press of Atlantic City, Most of the oyster farmers using the tidal flats here on the Delaware Bay will get a one-year reprieve before having to conform to strict new rules to protect a migratory shorebird. The federal listing of the red knot as a “threatened” species, which became effective Jan. 12, is still expected to have a huge future impact on the small but growing oyster industry. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Pleasantville just doesn’t have the staff to review all the operations before May when the red knots arrive to feast on horseshoe crab eggs.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Endangered sea turtles at risk from coyotes. E&E News (sub req’d). Coyotes are threatening endangered sea turtle populations in South Carolina, according to state wildlife officials. Last summer, coyotes were responsible for eating about half the 90 sea turtle nests on North Island near Georgetown, S.C., according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Conservationists are particularly concerned about the threats coyotes pose to loggerhead sea turtles, which are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

WASHINGTON

‘Mega Sink’ is a mess: South Jetty captures more than its share of plastic junk. Daily Astorian. Marine plastics researcher and Seaside native Marc Ward estimated that he and more than 50 other volunteers pulled out more than a quarter ton of microplastics Feb. 15 from what he’s termed the “Columbia River South Jetty Mega Sink.” And that, he said, is probably only a third of it. Of particular concern right now, said Ward, is the coming nesting season from March 15 to July 15 of snowy plovers, protected under state law and under the federal Endangered Species Act. Clatsop Spit is one of several snowy plover management areas designated by the state.