Feds say sage grouse belongs on list of endangered species but wildlife agency lacks resources

The Obama administration said Friday that the greater sage grouse qualifies for listing as an endangered or threatened species but that the species will not be listed due to financial and personnel constraints.

The greater sage grouse is a flightless bird that was once common throughout the west. Its population has declined by 90 percent, and half of its habitat has been lost, since European settlement of the western United States.

"The sage-grouse’s decline reflects the extent to which open land in the West has been developed in the last century,” U.S. secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said at a news conference. “This development has provided important benefits, but we must find common-sense ways of protecting, restoring, and reconnecting the Western lands that are most important to the species’ survival while responsibly developing much-needed energy resources."

Salazar emphasized that the Obama administration was seeking to balance both traditional uses of public land and the imperative of protecting a species that has been deeply harmed by them.

“This gives us a window of several years to make sure that we assure the twin goals here, which is first making sure that the sage grouse is protected and doesn’t have to be put on the endangered species list and that it doesn’t go extinct," Salazar said. "Second, that we can go forward with the continued use and development of our public lands and that includes energy and grazing."

Environmentalists panned the decision.

"The Fish & Wildlife Service has once again roiled the dice regarding the continued existence of an imperiled species," Rob Mrowka, a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity, said. "The threats to the sage grouse, both from humans and climate change, are immense and demand that stronger protections be granted to the grouse."

The Interior department, which is responsible for managing most of the public land in the west, will continue to work closely with state fish and wildlife agencies on ways to preserve the species, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks Tom Strickland said.

Hunting of the greater sage grouse will continue to be allowed.

The Interior agency directly responsible for managing most federal land in the west, the Bureau of Land Management, may impose some additional conditions on companies seeking to drill for oil and gas there.

"Certainly we’d be reviewing those applications with a lot more scrutiny in areas where we’ve determined there are sage grouse," BLM director Bob Abbey said.

BLM land in the west constitutes 60 percent of greater sage grouse habitat, and Salazar conceded that scientists think the species is in trouble.

"The scientific studies suggest the long term prognosis for the sage grouse is not good," he said.

But Salazar and Strickland believe that reliance on state agencies, along with some changes in BLM practices, will be enough to keep the species from disappearing.

"Thanks in large measure to the space conservation measures in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and other states, we have seen sage grouse populations at a point where they are relatively stable over the last decade," Salazar said.

The species relies on sagebrush for food and cover, but the extent of sagebrush across the region has markedly declined due to agricultural use of land, herbicide application, grazing, fire, displacement of sagebrush habitat by non-native cheatgrass, and development of powerlines, fences, roads and other human structures and facilities.

Preservation and restoration of the bird's habitat would inevitably impact ranchers and energy developers. Those interests have argued strongly against listing the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

The Obama administration's action indicates that it believes there is no inherent conflict between those uses of public land in the west and recovery of the grouse.

"We think there is plenty of room in the west for energy development, both conventional and renewable, and for sage grouse," Strickland said.

Listing of the greater sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species would force energy developers to avoid actions that could directly harm individual birds.

A listing would also force BLM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before granting permits necessary for oil and gas extraction activities or grazing to proceed. The federal wildlife agency would be required to impose conditions on those activities that assure the bird's continued survival and recovery.

In December 2007 a federal judge rejected a decision by the administration of former president George W. Bush to keep the greater sage grouse of the list of endangered and threatened species.

A separate species of the bird that is also native to parts of the western U.S., the Gunnison sage grouse, is still under consideration for inclusion on the list of endangered and threatened species.