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Sage grouse not endangered

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jodywy

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http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28855352/grouse-not-endangered-feds-rely-state-led-rescue
The federal government has decided not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, relying instead on state-led voluntary efforts to stop extinction across long-neglected expanses of Western sagebrush steppe.

President Barack Obama's top public lands officials, led by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, will announce the decision Tuesday at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, northeast of Denver.

It marks a shift after the feds in 2010 determined grouse needed protection under the Endangered Species Act to survive onslaughts of agricultural, housing and industrial energy development. And it marks a new all-hands-on-deck approach to wildlife conservation across large landscapes.

A chicken-size forager famed for fancy mating displays, greater sage grouse once numbered in the millions but have declined to an estimated 200,000 to 500,000. Survivors are clumped around 165 million acres stretching from Colorado up to the Dakotas and out to California — also home to 300 other species including golden eagles.

Newly launched state-led conservation projects "will ensure that abundant greater sage grouse populations will continue to be distributed across the range into the foreseeable future," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant director Gary Frazer said Monday in a discussion with reporters.

"The service has concluded that the greater sage grouse does not meet the definition of a threatened or endangered species and does not warrant listing," Frazer said. "We will continue to participate in and monitor the conservation efforts and population trends, and we will re-evaluate the status of the species in five years."

Federal officials have faced sustained resistance from western states, including Colorado, opposing any Endangered Species Act listing. In 2010, the feds agreed to delay action, challenging states to prove by 2015 that they could bring the bird back from the brink.

National conservation groups worried that imposing federal Endangered Species Act restrictions on such a large area — 165 million acres across 11 states — could cause Congress to attack a cumbersome-but-useful environmental law.


Greater sage grouse jockey for position and strut in the predawn light during mating season on a ranch in Craig. The bird experienced a 56 percent drop in
Greater sage grouse jockey for position and strut in the predawn light during mating season on a ranch in Craig. The bird experienced a 56 percent drop in breeding males in the U.S. in 2013, to 48,641 from 109,990 in 2007. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

Hickenlooper and other western governors plan to join Jewell at the refuge Tuesday. They've insisted on flexibility in pressing for state-led voluntary conservation, warning federal intervention would put unprecedented limits on people — stifling economic development.

Colorado leaders last week asked Fish and Wildlife officials to approve a state-run "habitat exchange" to let drillers, ranchers, builders and others offset harm to grouse habitat by paying for efforts to improve habitat at other locations. Other states have proposed similar exchanges in a concerted push to avert a federal listing.

It remains unclear whether grouse numbers are actually up.

"The most significant change since 2010 is that both state and federal partners have established regulatory plans that have addressed the primary threat, which was the loss and fragmentation of habitat," Frazer said.

Since 1985, grouse have dwindled rapidly amid grazing, house-building, oil and gas exploration and other activity. This decline triggers, under the ESA, the federal equivalent of an ecological emergency room rescue on habitat where grouse have survived.

Larger populations have survived in Wyoming and Nevada. In Colorado, state wildlife officials estimate there are about 20,000 grouse. Their habitat within Colorado spans public lands (53 percent) and private lands (47 percent).

Grouse can be hard to count because of their wide range, camouflage and knack for hiding in sagebrush. The decades-long storm over grouse has kindled interest in population data, but there's no effective, accepted way to count these birds.

State wildlife agencies focus on the most visible grouse: males puffing their chests and making blooping sounds in sunrise mating dances on communal mating sites, called leks.

The federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 8.4 million acres in Colorado, plays a key role in whether grouse will survive. BLM officials lease land for grazing, drilling, mining and installation of power lines and windmills. New BLM plans for land use contain restrictions such as limiting activity near leks and requiring directional drilling to reach underground oil and gas.

Federal agencies dealing with wildfire also increasingly prioritize needs of sage grouse. They've mapped habitat where wildfire is considered a primary threat to survival of the bird and are working to reduce invasive cheatgrass that makes habitat vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire.

Fish and Wildlife officials on Monday called for congressional support to make sure states can successfully carry out conservation plans.

"The critical part is implementation," said Jim Lyons, Fish and Wildlife's deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management.

"Now is the time for Congress to join in a partnership with us. ... We would hope Congress would see fit not to undermine this decision of 'not warranted.' "
 
Nailed it Mike. That and they are smart enough to win this war by 1000 cuts instead of trying a death blow that could backfire.
 

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