Grouse won’t be listed as endangered species
Interior secretary says birds are not threatened
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has abandoned plans to declare the bistate, Mono Basin sage grouse threatened. Agreements with ranchers has helped the bird, officials said.
RENO — A bird found only in California and Nevada no longer faces the threat of extinction and doesn’t require federal protection, officials said just months before a moresweeping decision is due on whether to declare other sage grouse threatened or endangered in 11 Western states.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is abandoning a 2013 proposal to declare the bistate, Mono Basin sage grouse threatened because agreements with ranchers to conserve land and other improvements in the bird’s habitat have helped stabilize its population along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern front, officials said ahead of her announcement planned Tuesday in Reno.
“The threats are no longer of a magnitude that would require listing,” said Mary Grim, regional sage grouse coordinator for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Conservationists who petitioned for the bird’s protection accused Jewell of caving to pressure from Western conservatives.
The bird is a genetically distinct population of the greater sage grouse species, which is under consideration for protection in Nevada, California and nine other states. Any listing of greater sage grouse would not affect the bistate grouse.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has to make that court- ordered decision by Sept. 30 in a legal battle with conservationists that spans more than 15 years.
The agency intends to make the decision on time, but Congress passed a budget prohibiting money from being spent on implementing a listing for greater sage grouse. Western lawmakers feared protections would trigger new restrictions on ranchers, energy exploration and other land development.
Jewell said in remarks prepared for the announcement with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval that the “collaborative, sciencebased efforts” in the two states “are proof that we can conserve sagebrush habitat across the West while we encourage sustainable economic development.”
“This is welcome news for all Nevadans,” the Republican governor said.
Jason Weller, chief of the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource and Conservation Service, said steps taken in Nevada and California should be used as a model to head off a potential listing of the greater sage grouse stretching across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“I hope folks take a hard look at this decision, the key ingredients and what we can learn from that and apply those to the greater sage grouse, because that’s what’s up next,” Weller said.
Government scientists estimate 2,500 to 9,000 bistate sage grouse are spread across more than 7,000 square miles of sagebrush habitat straddling the Nevada- California line from Carson City to near Yosemite National Park.
Michael Connor, California director of the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project, said federal officials considered the bird a priority for protections just last year.
“The service’s backpedaling in claiming that unfinished management plans and voluntary, cooperative agreements will protect the species is untrue and smacks of political expediency,” he said Tuesday.
The Fish and Wildlife Service was concerned about the rate of habitat loss when it proposed listing the bird as threatened two years ago, Grim said.
Since then, ranchers, conservationists and government agencies have committed more than $ 45 million to restoration efforts over the next 15 years, making the listing unnecessary, she said.
“If you look at the science, look at the commitments we have, clearly in comparison to 2010, the future looks very bright for bistate sage grouse,” Grim said. “There’s no reason to think the subspecies is at risk now or in the future of going extinct.”