BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A group of Western-state governors has released a report on voluntary efforts in 11 states to conserve the habitat of sage grouse as part of an effort to avoid a federal listing of the bird under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The 32-page “2014 Sage-Grouse Inventory” released Thursday by the Western Governors’ Association identifies conservation work during the year and is accompanied by a 101-page appendix listing efforts since 2011.
“The states have certainly done all that has been asked of them and all that can be done to prove to the federal government that a listing is unnecessary,” said Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, who has proposed ideas for protecting habitat that have been incorporated by federal planners.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a Sept. 30 deadline to decide whether to propose the greater sage grouse as needing protections that could limit ranching as well as oil and gas drilling in the West. The Western Governors’ Association said a listing will reduce voluntary conservation work and harm states’ economies.
The chicken-sized bird once numbered in the millions, but current estimates put the population between 200,000 and 500,000. Experts blame loss of habitat. They attribute that loss to development and, in the last decade, massive wildfires blamed on a warming climate and invasive species, namely fire-prone cheatgrass that has transformed large areas into monocultures unsuitable for sage grouse.