Furthering Conservation, Avoiding Conflict in the Sagebrush
Posted: 18-Mar-2009; Updated: 08-Apr-2009
Around mid-summer, Ken Salazar, the new U.S. Secretary of the Interior, is expected to announce an Endangered Species Act decision with wide-ranging implications for 11 western states. Listing the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) as threatened or endangered could affect oil and gas development, and also wind energy sites.
Rangelands also widely overlap with grouse habitat. Longtime Idaho Statesman environmental reporter Rocky Barker says a sage-grouse listing could ignite a controversy with ranchers reminiscent of the one with loggers when the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) was listed in the late 1980s.
Fortunately a repeat of that tempest isn’t inevitable. In recent years, CCI has been working alongside a wide range of stakeholders to explore ways to halt and reverse the sage-grouse’s decades-long decline while also helping landowners avoid severe impacts if the bird is listed. One possible pre-listing conservation measure that offers legal assurances for landowners—Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances—was discussed in our January newsletter.
Greater sage-grouse range map. Click on map for larger view. (Source: USGS)
There’s no doubt that greater sage-grouse have drastically declined from their historic numbers. The bird is entirely gone from five states that it once inhabited. Several factors have caused its decline: conversion of habitat to cropland; invasion of non-native species such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum); oil and gas development and overgrazing. Fences contribute directly to bird mortality through collisions and indirectly by helping create uniform—or homogeneous—habitat that sage-grouse and other species avoid.
Wind energy and sage-grouse
Wind turbines and transmission towers can also render habitat unsuitable for sage-grouse. These ground-dwelling birds evolved to avoid tall vertical structures, probably because that’s where avian predators perch.
In 2008, CCI joined with National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists and wind energy interests to found the American Wind Wildlife Institute. This new organization is now working to locate and design wind power development to minimize the impacts on sage-grouse and other sensitive wildlife. This approach could become a model for averting future conflicts with wildlife when other new energy sources and technologies emerge.
Habitat restoration evaluation
Habitat restoration is also important for increasing sage-grouse populations. Although the first goal is to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on existing habitat, that’s not always possible. In some situations, unavoidable impacts require mitigation that restores or enhances potential habitat elsewhere. CCI is working with the Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative (CSI), which hopes to steer mitigation funding to landowners willing to have such activities undertaken on their land.
Wyoming sagebrush habitat. (Photo: iStockphoto)
A practical challenge for effective habitat mitigation is the need to establish an accepted methodology to evaluate the tradeoffs between the loss or degradation of habitat at a development site and the restoration or enhancement of habitat at a mitigation site. CSI held a workshop that produced a proposed habitat evaluation methodology, which is now being tested in Wyoming, Idaho and California. Although we’re not directly involved at these demonstration sites, CCI is conferring regularly with those who are doing the testing.
Wildlife-friendly fencing and corridors
The Wildlife Corridors Initiative recently launched by the Western Governors’ Association seeks to galvanize support and funding to identify and conserve key corridors used by wildlife for migration and dispersal among major protected areas, as well as potential range shifts in response to climate change. This initiative could advance sage-grouse conservation by discouraging habitat fragmentation. We’ve focused on opportunities to further wildlife corridors using Farm Bill 2008 programs and outlined them in our February 2009 report.
One relatively easy and inexpensive opportunity for landowners to help greater-sage-grouse is making simple changes in fencing. A brief CCI paper discusses wildlife-friendly fencing.
Michael Bean
CCI Senior Attorney, Wildlife Program Director
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