As 2014 winds down and hunters return from the field, farmers and ranchers switch from harvesting to winter chores, drillers and roughnecks put on another layer of warm work clothes and outdoor retailers turn their inventories for a new season, there’s a chilly air of uncertainty in northwest Colorado and the Gunnison Basin.
A potentially heavy shoe has dropped that will affect all those activities and more. That’s the recently announced decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Gunnison sage grouse as a threatened species.
Still pending is a separate and more far-reaching decision, due next fall, on whether the greater sage grouse that inhabits northwestern Colorado, 10 other Western states and two Canadian provinces will be listed, too.
The decision to do a “listing light” for the Gunnison sage grouse has unleashed the expected backlash. Gov. John Hickenlooper has threatened to sue. There’s worry that landowners who’ve worked to preserve Gunnison sage grouse habitat might pull their lands from those proactive efforts and the work in northwest Colorado that’s aimed at protecting the greater sage grouse.
Let’s pull back on the reins a bit and think about this.
The “threatened” designation, the “listing light” that carries less stringent restrictions than an “endangered” designation, likely didn’t surprise any of us invited to meet in Craig early this year with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, Governor HIckenlooper and officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other state and federal agencies.
Sure, everyone praised collaboration and acknowledged the threats that listing the Gunnison or greater sage grouse might pose to certain economic sectors. Unsaid, or carefully danced around, were the narrow confines governing listing decisions under the Endangered Species Act.
Ashe and his staff find themselves grappling with the mandated species-oriented mission of the USFWS and the desires of another species that sometimes considers itself threatened if not endangered – workers and residents in the rural West. The agency is also caught between its mission of preservation and protection and its federal and state partners’ multiple-use missions.
Listing the Gunnison sage grouse as threatened doesn’t necessarily signal a listing for the greater sage grouse, which has a much larger population and geographic base. A few thousand birds in small scattered populations pose a different set of circumstances compared to hundreds of thousands of greater sage grouse spread over 11 Western states and portions of Canada.
It doesn’t have to come down to birds vs. people. Many people, particularly hunters, see the sage grouse as a bellwether species. What’s good for the birds is also good for deer and other species that depend on the same territory for survival. With Colorado Parks and Wildlife embarked on a long-term effort to reverse an alarming decline in deer numbers in northwestern Colorado, it’s no wonder outdoor enthusiasts support some restrictions on activities that threaten hunting, an important economic driver for much of the state.
Since the USFWS announcement, the National Wildlife Federation released results of a survey of hunters completed this fall that confirm support for habitat protections to benefit sage grouse and other wildlife. Nine out of 10 hunters surveyed in 11 Western states believe it’s important to protect greater sage grouse habitat within their state, even if it means limiting energy production, grazing or motorized recreation on some federal lands.
The NWF announcement spotlights two other reports. One notes there’s minimal overlap between the most important sage grouse habitat and current energy production. Another analysis found that recreation on BLM-managed sagebrush lands generated more than $1 billion in economic activity.
Instead of suing, Gov. Hickenlooper should put some teeth into statewide conservation plans for both birds. Some have described those plans as aspirational, a laudable set of goals lacking a regulatory framework that could increase chances of success.
In some ways, these iconic birds have become more of a pawn than a real priority. We need leadership instead of lawsuits and handwringing. We need renewed collaboration leading to a quick withdrawal of the listing for the Gunnison sage grouse and conservation — not listing — of the greater sage grouse. The next steps should be on the ground, not in the courts.
Jim Spehar, a former Mesa County commissioner and Grand Junction City Council member, serves on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Sportsmen’s Roundtable and has long been active in public lands issues.
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