Issues
New Report Highlights Sage Grouse Conservation. The Sage Grouse Initiative, a partnership of ranchers, agencies, universities, non-profit groups, and businesses, released a new report this week highlighting voluntary conservation efforts in place to protect the greater sage-grouse and its habitat. The initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service in 2010, has played an important role in conserving 4.4 million acres of sage-grouse habitat across 11 western states in the past five years.
According the report, Success on the Range, over 1,000 ranches in 11 western states have conserved 6,000 square miles of sage-grouse habitat. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, for example, completed a conservation easement in 2014 at Colorado’s Cross Mountain Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the state, protecting 16,000 acres of premier sage-grouse habitat. In Douglas County, Washington, landowners have also worked in partnership with Conoco Phillips and others to conserve a piece of land that is home to 70 percent of the state’s sage-grouse population. Similar projects have occurred across the grouse’s habitat range to implement practices to protect the species, including sustainable grazing techniques, improved fencing, and increased coordination between stakeholders. Check out the full report HERE.
Montana works to conserve sage-grouse. In coordination with the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Sage Grouse Initiative, Montana signed a memorandum of understanding this week to create a new partnership to streamline sage-grouse conservation efforts on private lands in the state. The agreement combines the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the state of Montana, and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana, Inc. to conserve sage-grouse habitat on privately owned working rangelands.
According to Conservation Service Chief Jason Weller, “Almost two-thirds of Montana’s sage grouse habitat is on private lands, which is why voluntary, targeted conservation efforts are so critical.” Governor Bullock also emphasized the important role of state-based conservation to ward off a potential federal listing of the grouse, stating “our economy, and our Montana way of life depends on all of us working together to ensure a bright future for the grouse and a continued thriving economy. The best possible outcome: the management of the bird is to stay within the state of Montana.”
EPA Extends Monarch Butterfly Comment Period. This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a notice in the Federal Register announcing the extension of the comment period for its plan to protect the monarch butterfly, extending the comment period to August 24, 2015. In June, EPA announced its proposed plan, EPA’s Risk Management Approach to Identifying Options for Protecting the Monarch Butterfly, just months after the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a suit alleging EPA did not sufficiently take warnings about the impact of a widely used herbicide on the species.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also announced $3.2 million in funding to help protect the monarch population. The Independent Petroleum Association of America submitted joint comments with the American Petroleum Institute to Fish and Wildlife in response to a request for comment on the status of the monarch, highlighting the negligible impact of oil and gas operations on the butterfly’s population and its expansive habitat range. According to the comments, “no evidence exists in the literature of adverse effects from oil and gas industry operations on the species itself or on the destruction, modification, or curtailment of the species’ habitat or range.”
Spending bills include sage-grouse language. As the House and Senate prepare their spending bills for the new fiscal year, current versions of both bills include language to prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from writing an Endangered Species Act listing for the greater-sage grouse this fall. Similar language was included in last year’s spending bill, garnering praise from many in Western states and criticism from the administration.
As E&E News explains, the Bureau of Land Management’s new sage-grouse habitat management plans may also be impacted in the spending bill. According to E&E, “the BLM protections themselves — set to be finalized next month in resource management plans spanning 10 states — could also be blocked or rolled back in a spending bill.” The final language of both the House and Senate bills are still in negotiation.
In the News
Craig officials respond to Friday’s meeting with Sally Jewell. Craig Daily Press. A total of 14 representatives sat at the table with Jewell, expressing concerns about what’s next for Colowyo and the greater sage grouse issue. Representatives from U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner sat with Jewell, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton appeared in person to show support for Colowyo, Beck said. Additionally, there was at least one commissioner from Routt, Rio Blanco and Moffat counties also present.
Fish and Wildlife Commission looks at sage grouse rules. Statesman Journal. Sage grouse are on the docket Monday, July 27, when the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission holds a special meeting in Salem. Commissioners will hear about proposals for revised rules for offsetting habitat loss, known as mitigation rules, for sage grouse. Current rules are only recommendations, not requirements, for those seeking permits for development that affect areas designated as core habitat for sage grouse. Core habitats are areas that encompass about one-third of Oregon’s sage-grouse habitat but support more than 90 percent of the bird’s populations.
USDA accepting more farmland for wildlife habitat in Texas. Bandera County Courier. Here in Texas, 114,800 acres in the Mixed Grass Project for the benefit of the Lesser Prairie Chicken are designed specifically to increase the Lesser Prairie Chicken habitat. Since it was first established in 2008, farmers and ranchers have enrolled 87,500 acres, which increased managed and developed habitats, resulting in a 25 percent increase of the Lesser Prairie Chicken population.
Report dead sage grouse during West Nile virus season. Pine Bluffs Post. All Wyomingites, especially landowners, are again being asked to assist in the management of the state’s sage grouse populations this summer by immediately reporting dead sage grouse to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department so they can be tested for West Nile virus. Past research has shown sage grouse have low resistance to the disease, which is usually fatal to the birds. Evidence of West Nile virus has been reported in northeast Wyoming and in surrounding states.
Judge clears barred owl removal study. Capital Press. Killing barred owls to study the potential effects on threatened spotted owls does not violate federal environmental laws, according to a federal judge. Populations of the northern spotted owl, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act, have continued to decline in recent decades despite strict limits on logging.
Feds move one Arizona species toward endangered status, one the other way. Grand Canyon News. The federal government moved the Arizona toad closer to endangered status this week while dimming hopes for the gray wolf, which moved a step closer to losing endangered species protection altogether. The moves were among dozens announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which said in July that it was rejecting petitions to classify 10 species as endangered, but that it found evidence to move 21 others to the next step in the process.
Two Southern Illinois Animals Could be added to the Endangered Species List. WSIU News. According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, over 1,500 plants and animals in this country are currently under the strict protection of the Endangered Species Act. The FWS is currently assessing the status of five Midwestern amphibians and reptiles to see if populations of these five species of animals have declined to the point where they need to be added to the Endangered Species List. A couple of these animals can be found in southern Illinois.
Key to bats’ health to be researched in Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio News. Scientists across Minnesota are working this summer to learn more about bats in hopes that they can help the species better prepare for a fungus called white-nose syndrome, which has decimated bat populations in other parts of the country. Researchers actually know very little about the lives of bats, state DNR endangered species coordinator Richard Baker told MPR News host Cathy Wurzer. But recent technological developments have allowed scientists to better track bats.
Threatened bats halt some timber projects. Eagle Tribune. As a threatened species, the NLEB automatically gets a lengthy list of protections from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Under the Endangered Species Act, violating these protections could result in federal punishment in the form of hefty fines (up to $50,000 for some violations) or, in some cases, a year in prison.
