New York Times
November 10, 2004
By FELICITY BARRINGER
ASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - An initiative by the Bureau of Land Management to
conserve the habitat of the northern sage grouse is complicating efforts to
earn the bird designation as an endangered species.
The bird is a signature species of the West whose range overlaps with oil
and gas deposits and grazing lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states. The
initiative, likely to be unveiled next week by the bureau, is outlined in a
series of internal documents.
The effort to get the bird listed is being considered by a sister agency in
the Interior Department, the Fish and Wildlife Service, which must make its
decision by Dec. 29. Such a designation could lead to new restrictions on
energy exploration and grazing on lands where the birds live.
In a second action touching on the same arid landscape, the Fish and
Wildlife Service announced in the Federal Register on Tuesday that it was
rejecting a petition to give endangered status to the white-tailed prairie
dog. The scientific evidence, it said, did not warrant such action.
A decision by the service to list either the sage grouse or the prairie dog
as endangered could lead to new and potentially more onerous and expensive
regulation of energy exploration and drilling across Wyoming, Colorado, Utah
and Montana - perhaps including more restrictions on the number of new
wells, the number of days drilling is permitted, or both.
The prairie-dog petition was rejected relatively early in the process, but
the likelihood that the sage grouse could be given endangered status grew in
June with the release of a pessimistic scientific assessment by the Western
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
That group's analysis concluded, "we are not optimistic about the future of
sage grouse because of long-term population declines coupled with the
continued loss and degradation of habitat and other factors," like the
impact of the West Nile virus.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management, which supervises more than half
the land where sage grouse roam, is starting to highlight existing state and
local conservation efforts and to conserve the bird's habitat through its
own land-use planning process.
An internal memorandum discussing the guidance that the bureau is preparing
for its field offices said that if the sage grouse was listed as endangered,
"sage grouse management would then be conducted under a defined regulatory
process that could shift the emphasis away from cooperative conservation
efforts. This could affect a wide scope of activities conducted or
authorized by the B.L.M."
If the sage grouse were listed, the ultimate decisions on protecting the
bird would largely shift from states to the Interior Department, which
administers a regulatory regimen prescribed by the Endangered Species Act.
Populations of the sage grouse have declined in fits and starts over the
past 30 years, and have been the focus of state conservation efforts in
states including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada and South Dakota.
The range of the sagebrush within which they live covers more than 185,000
square miles across the West.
The birds are shy and nondescript, except during the mating rituals that
take place near their leks, or courtship and mating areas. During courtship,
the birds fluff themselves out and strut around the lek to entice their
mates.
The June report by the Western wildlife agencies' association indicated
there was a total population of 50,000 male birds in 2003, and said that,
after rapid declines from the 1960's to the 1980's, the population had
"tended to stabilize."
But it also noted, "although there are areas that presently could be
considered population strongholds, some populations are still declining
rather precipitously in various portions of the species range."
In an interview Tuesday, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton was neutral when
asked how she regarded listing the bird as endangered. "There are lots of
efforts being made to put in place good strong conservation measures," Ms.
Norton said. "Ultimately, it will require deciding whether those measures
are sufficient.
"You have to make a threshold determination whether the species is on a
track that would usually cause it to be listed on the endangered species
list," she added. "If that's true, then you look at the conservation efforts
to see if they are enough to move the decision in the opposite direction."
Kathleen Clarke, the Bureau of Land Management director, said in an
interview that her office would provide the Fish and Wildlife Service with
not just prospective conservation plans but a compilation of the state and
local conservation efforts undertaken previously.
Asked if her strategy would render moot the listing of the bird as an
endangered species, she said, "I'm not going to speculate. Fish and Wildlife
has to apply their process - it is their decision to make. We are working
hard to make very sure they are clear about what we have done and are
committed to doing."
But Mark Salvo, a specialist on the issue for the American Lands Alliance,
which had petitioned to list the sage grouse as endangered, said, "Given
B.L.M.'s track record and the current administration's goals for public
land, it would be a big mistake to rely on this B.L.M. plan to restore the
species."
He added, "I don't think there's any question that the B.L.M. has produced
this plan to try to head off a listing," and noted that the June report
"painted a fairly grim picture of sage grouse habitat."
Dru Bower, a vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said
that the state and local conservation efforts should not be underestimated.
And Jeff Eisenberg, an executive of the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association, said "for conservation to succeed and be effective, you need to
win the hearts and minds of the people who live on the land."
The rejection of the prairie-dog petition drew a sharp response from Erin
Robertson of The Center for Native Ecosystems, which had led the effort for
the listing. "The Department of Interior had reams of documents showing the
prairie dog is in serious trouble," Ms. Robertson said. "It's ludicrous for
them to claim lack of information."