Public Lands Foundation
A POSITION PAPER
Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation September 17, 2004
The sage grouse is the representative bird of the western United States sagebrush landscape. Significant declines in the populations of sage grouse and a better than 50 percent reduction in productive grouse habitat have led to the possibility of listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). More than half of the remaining sage grouse habitat is on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In response to the growing pressure for ESA listing, a major collaborative effort is under way to protect and restore sage grouse habitats and to rebuild grouse populations. That effort includes the western state wildlife agencies, the Western Governors' Association, and the BLM, along with a full range of public land users and wildlife conservation interests. The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) strongly supports this sage grouse habitat conservation effort and, so long as it continues and proves successful on the ground, recommends that sage grouse not be listed either as threatened or endangered.
BACKGROUND
Over the past three decades, an evident decline in sage grouse over their historic range in the sagebrush landscape in the West has been a matter of concern to hunters, wildlife agencies, conservationists, and public land managers. The seriousness of the decline led to petitions for listing the sage grouse under the ESA and to an extensive analysis by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
It is generally agreed that over the past 150 years of western development about half of the habitat available for sage grouse has been lost or rendered unsuitable and that, on the remaining useful habitat, sage grouse populations have declined significantly.
This loss is the result of a combination of intentional and unintentional human activities, together with natural occurrences and processes such as fire, drought, disease, and weather patterns. Activities that have resulted in habitat loss include urbanization; agricultural development; livestock grazing; mineral and oil and gas development; the proliferation of roads and trails; off-road vehicle recreation; vegetation manipulation, including burning, plowing, and herbicides; and the explosive spread of non-native invasive plants.
While there is some disagreement about the extent and rate of losses and declines and about the relative impact of various human activities, there is general agreement that this is a serious situation that will require significant effort to halt and reverse. Because BLM has the management responsibility for the land that contains over 50 percent of the remaining viable sage grouse habitat, that agency has initiated a major priority effort, described in detail by BLM Deputy Director Fran Cherry at the PLF annual meeting in Boise on September 16, 2004. This is a two-part effort to protect and restore sagebrush habitat for sage grouse and for the numerous other wildlife species, such as pygmy rabbits, which are dependent on sagebrush habitat.
The first part of BLM's effort will focus on ensuring that BLM land-use decisions take into account the existence of sage grouse habitat potentially affected by the decision and including measures in those decisions that will protect and maintain such habitat. The second part of the BLM effort is on-the-ground, site-specific sage grouse habitat restoration projects in areas where habitat has been degraded but where the potential for successful restoration of grouse populations is high.
BLM is also working collaboratively with western state wildlife agencies and is an active partner in the working groups formed by the Western Governors' Association. These groups, comprised of a cross section of interests, are developing strategies and priorities at the local level directed at the conservation of sage grouse.
PLF CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The PLF endorses and supports the BLM programs to rebuild and restore sagebrush habitat and expects to see proof of the emphasis BLM is placing on this program expressed in land-use decisions and in actual restoration projects under way in the coming year.
It is clear that BLM's program thrust, and the major efforts being made by the western states, recognize the potential threat of endangered species listing. There is an honest desire to avoid the regulatory, bureaucratic, and legal quagmire that could result from turning the sage grouse into the "spotted owl of the western rangelands."
If these efforts succeed, the beneficial intent of the Endangered Species Act may be achieved without entangling BLM, public land users, and conservationists in an unending and unproductive morass of wrangling and recrimination.
Therefore, the PLF strongly recommends that the sage grouse not be listed under the ESA and the efforts described above be given a reasonable time and chance to reverse the historic trends and to rebuild and restore productive sagebrush habitat and sage grouse populations