Western governors are touting state-led voluntary efforts in Colorado and 10 other states to save the greater sage grouse.
They’re unveiling a list Thursday of sagebrush habitat conservation projects aimed at preventing a federal government intervention to impose Endangered Species Act protection. Voluntary efforts, “if allowed to run their course, will provide the bird with the necessary habitat to live and thrive,” the governors’ report contends. Governors warned the feds’ action would hurt the economy.
“Western states are doing an enormous amount of work to preserve the greater sage grouse, as well as , here in Colorado,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said.
“Governors believe a listing of the greater sage grouse by the Fish and Wildlife Service would diminish the amount of conservation work undertaken and have a significant, negative economic impact across the West.”
A gray-brown ground bird famed for fancy mating displays, greater sage grouse inhabit 165 million acres of sagebrush land between Colorado and California. Since 1985, grouse populations have decreased by more than 30 percent. While populations appear relatively stable in Colorado, that grouse need Endangered Species Act protection to avoid extinction because of oil and gas development, grazing and home building.
The list put forth by the Western Governors’ Association describes efforts using conservation easements and land purchases to limit development on nearly 350,000 acres of sagebrush land in Colorado, Idaho and Montana, of which more than 80,000 acres are in Colorado.
Local governments and landowners also have tried to help grouse by removing piñon and juniper trees, which suck up scarce water and provide perches for predators.
Land burned by wildfire has been replanted with sagebrush. Oil and gas companies, such as Noble Energy, have reduced industrial operations near “lek” clearings where grouse mate in spring. Cattlemen committed to minimize grazing on leks.
Sagebrush also sustains hundreds of other species from deer and antelope to pygmy rabbits.
Federal officials are pressing states to toughen regulatory protection.
“Voluntary measures by themselves aren’t the answer,” said Luke Schafer, western slope advocacy director for the environmental group Conservation Colorado. “We expect, at the federal and state levels, agencies will employ both a voluntary and a regulatory approach to manage greater sage grouse and sage grouse habitat.”
