As Sage-Grouse Decision Looms, West Holds Its Breath

U.S. Fish and Wildlife will decide whether to list the bird by the end of September.

Humans have long spelled trouble for the Greater Sage-Grouse. When John James 探花精选 described 鈥溾 almost 200 years ago, he remarked that it 鈥渙ften runs under the horses of travellers when disturbed.鈥 In the decades since, the iconic Western bird鈥檚 numbers have plummeted, largely due to habitat disturbance. But in recent years, people across the West have taken a keen interest in the plight of the chicken-sized bird because of the looming threat of a listing under the Endangered Species Act鈥攁n enormously controversial decision that would block off tens of millions of acres from development, exploration, or use. 

By the end of September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, facing a court-ordered deadline, will decide whether to list the Greater Sage-Grouse under the ESA.

The grouse, whose numbers have dropped to less than 500,000 birds today from as many as 16 million historically, has been under consideration since 2010, due to loss and fragmentation of sagebrush habitat across its 165-million-acre range, which spans 11 states. The possibility of a listing has spurred a resounding response. Over the last half-decade, federal, state, local, and private stakeholders have taken unprecedented conservation measures to try to stave off a listing. There have also been a torrent of Congressional efforts, backed by industry, to stop or slow the government from declaring the bird threatened or endangered.

"It鈥檚 no secret that there鈥檚 very heavy overlap between the bird鈥檚 range and places that are really good for oil and gas development, places that are really good for wind development, places that are already existing private lands with working ranches on them," says 探花精选鈥檚 VP of Government Relations Mike Daulton. "So the question is, given that reality of where the bird needs to live and what鈥檚 going on in the American West, what can we do to find a path forward?" 

Most people, aside from some green groups, will be hugely relieved if the bird is not listed. But that won鈥檛 mean the work is over; it鈥檒l merely signal that the enormous conservation efforts are on the right track. There will still be a long way to go to protect the grouse and its habitat in order to ensure the species isn鈥檛 listed in the future.

As the September 30 deadline draws near, here鈥檚 a look at the situation. 

Meet the Sage-Grouse

First, a bit about the bird鈥攁nyone who鈥檚 been following this story closely knows that the sage-grouse is, well, a bit of an odd bird. 鈥淐hicken-like鈥 comes up a lot, though while the sage-grouse is chicken-like in size, it is not, in fact, chicken-like in flavor or texture (reportedly). the sage-grouse as 鈥渁bout as adaptable as the dodo bird, which is to say it's not very adaptable at all.鈥 Manmade structures don鈥檛 bode well for the ancient birds; they can鈥檛 see fences, which lead to deadly collisions, and power lines offer convenient perches for birds of prey and ravens, which make meals of young grouse. called it 鈥減ositively prehistoric,鈥 while went with 鈥渂ig mutant chickens.鈥  In truth, the male sage-grouse does have quite the combination of spikey tail feathers and bulbous, yellow sacs on its chest (which are used during courtship displays)鈥攊t鈥檚 a 鈥減eculiar and uniquely American bird,鈥 as put it. On the other hand, the female grouse, with her svelte build and salt-and-pepper feathers, is actually quite nice-looking.

The males also perform this delightful mating dance: 

Greater Sage-Grouse are inextricably tied to sagebrush; the fragrant bushes provide nesting habitat in the summer, and the toxin-laden leaves are the birds鈥 sole food source in the winter (protecting the grouse safeguards habitat for more than 350 species of plants and animals that are also dependent on the sagebrush ecosystem). 

The males鈥 鈥渂ooms,鈥 (made with those delightful chest sacs), can travel more than a mile, attracting females to leks, or mating grounds. Much sage-grouse habitat is sought after for oil and gas fields, renewable energy farms, mines, and ranches, both existing and potential鈥攈ence ranchers and industry鈥檚 interest in the fate of the bird.

The Final Federal Push

The federal government manages two-thirds of the bird鈥檚 165-million-acre habitat. In late May the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service their last, best hope for keeping the bird off the list: 14 land management plans spanning 10 Western states. The plans will barely have time to be implemented by the time USFWS鈥 decision comes down (they first must go through a 60-day Governor鈥檚 Consistency Review Period and a simultaneous 30-day comment period) in September, but the effort put forth will likely factor into the final decision.  

Among other things, the plans will create no-drill buffer zones around the grouse鈥檚 breeding grounds, or leks, to protect the habitat the birds need to reproduce. Of the 60 BLM acres of sage-grouse habitat managed by the BLM, 2 million will be involved in the creation of these buffer zones. The plans also allocate money for fire prevention and habitat restoration, all in the interest of protecting the leks. (Besides development, the sage grouse鈥檚 two biggest enemies are wildfires and the encroachment of invasive species, like fast-spreading pi帽on and juniper trees, along with cheatgrass鈥攚hich actually boosts the chance of wildfires)

States鈥 Solutions

Five percent of sage-grouse habitat is on state lands, and each state has a tailored plan explaining how it will protect the bird. Wyoming was the first to develop a grouse management plan in 2008, which incorporated a core area approach鈥攁 buffer around critical habitat that still allowed for development outside those key areas. Since then, all 11 states with sage-grouse have implemented similar plans, with Nevada, and North Dakota, and Montana the last to release their strategies last year.

Landowners Take Action

About one-third of the grouse鈥檚 habitat lies on private property, which means protecting the bird falls in large part to those trying to make a living off this land, people like rancher Bryan Masini. Sixty-two-year-old Masini, whose family has worked the land in the same Nevada watershed for six generations, has become an evangelist for this kind of private-public partnership the Interior Department thinks could help save the bird. Launched in 2010 by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services, the is an organized effort to conserve the bird鈥檚 habitat while coexisting with industry. To date, the program has seen 4.4 million acres be set aside by 1,129 ranchers in 11 states, according to . The initiative has also poured $424.5 million into land protection and rehabilitation over the past five years, and recently committed another .  

The Masini family, like other ranchers, set aside part of their land as conservation easements, meaning that they promise not to develop the land鈥攅ver. Easements provide 鈥渓ong-term permanent protection of that critical habitat,鈥 explains NRCS Chief Jason Weller. In return, they receive compensation in the form of both tax breaks and cash payments. (How much they receive varies by acreage, location and land type鈥攂ut one critical bonus that applies across the board is that once land is offered up as an easement, landowners cannot be asked to take additional measures to protect the bird later, even if it鈥檚 listed.) In addition to easements, landowners earn rewards for such actions as improving their fences, restoring wetlands, or removing invasive plants.

"It's inextricable 鈥攜ou can't have the grouse without public and private lands," Weller says. The bird spends its winter months in the higher, government-owned elevations, but descends into the privately owned meadows, where there is water for their hatchlings, in the spring and summer. Protecting both is the key to success.

Conservation Conundrum

Conservationists are at odds when it comes to whether the bird should be listed. Some believe the best thing for the bird is to be declared threatened or endangered鈥攔egardless of the work that鈥檚 been done in recent years. Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, points to a recent study that showed a 56-percent decline in sage-grouse numbers between 2007 and 2013 (another study found that the birds rebounded in 2013 and 2014). He believes that the 14 BLM management plans might slow the species decline, but isn鈥檛 convinced they鈥檒l be enough to officially reestablish the populations. 鈥淭he new conservation measures shouldn鈥檛 be judged by how much they change land management status quo,鈥 he says, 鈥渂ut rather they should be judged on whether they will actually reverse the trend toward extinction.鈥

Daulton says 探花精选 would support a listing if the Greater Sage-Grouse鈥檚 population dips so low that listing is the only option. But he says there鈥檚 still time before that point, and he鈥檚 optimistic about collaborative efforts already underway. 鈥淭his strategy is about replacing gridlock with hope,鈥 Daulton says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about replacing the specter of extinction with the promise of collaboration.鈥

Collaboration is key to saving the sage-grouse鈥攁nd the ESA is key to collaboration, says Daulton. Right now, the law is both the carrot and the stick: it鈥檚 the incentive for industries and private landowners to assist with conservation efforts (e.g. the money offered in the form of easements), and it鈥檚 the restrictions they鈥檇 reckon with if they don鈥檛 (e.g. being forbidden from operating on wide swaths of the land).

Take away that threat and you鈥檙e 鈥渢aking away all of the incentive to collaborative conservation," Daulton says. "Unravel all of the conservation鈥攁ll of the preventative medicine鈥攁nd you're even more likely to end up in the emergency room."

Congressional Crackdown

In the crucial last few months before a decision must be made on the Greater Sage-Grouse the ESA is experiencing what may be the most serious assaults in its history. In a single day in May, for instance, the Senate鈥檚 Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing to consider designed to weaken the ESA.

Among them: 鈥,鈥 a controversial bill introduced by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), co-sponsored by Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV). A foil to the plans released by USFWS and the BLM in May, it would instead allow each state to come up with its own plan to manage threats to bird while 鈥減rotecting their local economies.鈥 It would also prevent any listing activity at all for six years.

That鈥檚 six years scientists say the Greater-Sage Grouse doesn鈥檛 have. That much time would constitute 鈥渋rreparable harm,鈥 says Clait Braun, a habitat management consultant and sage-grouse expert.

Conservationists and their allies hope it won鈥檛 come to that鈥攁nd so far, it hasn鈥檛. Senator Barbara Boxer, for one, has promised 鈥渉and-to-hand combat鈥 on the Senate floor if the series of bills, which she characterizes as 鈥渁 back-door repeal of the Endangered Species Act,鈥 gets that far.

Peering at Tea Leaves

In 2013, FWS proposed listing the bi-state Greater Sage-grouse, a small, genetically distinct population that straddles the California/Nevada border. This past April, the agency announced the bi-state population does not require protections under the federal government. USFWS鈥檚 decision not to list wasn鈥檛 because the populations鈥 numbers had increased; in fact, over the last 10 years, research shows that the population has either stayed the same, or decreased. Rather, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell cited 鈥渢he extraordinary efforts鈥 to address threats such as loss and fragmentation of sagebrush habitat through a 2012 action plan crafted by scientists, landowners, and conservation groups. And the effort has secured the funding it needs to carry out the , says Mary Grim of USFWS. In addition to the $30 million already spent on the effort, the government has pledged $45 million dollars over the next 15 years to protect the bi-state鈥檚 habitat.

Now, the bi-state decision is entirely separate from the region-wide determination due this month. Yet when announcing the bi-state determination Secretary Jewell did, intriguingly, say, 鈥淭he collaborative, science-based efforts in Nevada and California are proof that we can conserve sagebrush habitat across the West while we encourage sustainable economic development.鈥 We鈥檒l soon find out if that was a hint at what鈥檚 to come.

With 11 states involved and millions of acres of private land to incorporate, it will be a much bigger feat to guarantee the Greater Sage-Grouse the same level of cooperation that was able to keep the bi-state off the Endangered Species List. For proof, just ask Masini, who owns land in both the bi-state鈥檚 habitat, where he saw collaboration work, and in the Greater Sage-Grouse鈥檚 habitat.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a little different here, and a little more difficult because of the vastness of the region,鈥 Masini says of the Greater Sage-Grouse鈥檚 habitat. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to come down to how many dollars become available and how many ranchers participate. They tend to be extremely independent here.鈥