AP Newsbreak: No Federal Protection For Bistate Sage Grouse

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A type of sage grouse found only in California and Nevada no longer faces the threat of extinction and doesn’t require federal protection, the Interior Department decided Tuesday just months before a more-sweeping decision is due on whether to declare other sage grouse threatened or endangered in 11 Western states.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2013 proposal to list the bistate, Mono Basin sage grouse as no longer threatened is warranted because agreements with ranchers to conserve land and other improvements in the bird’s habitat have helped stabilize its population along the Sierra’s eastern front, department officials told The Associated Press ahead of Secretary Sally Jewell’s announcement planned later 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.

‘Ted Koch, the agency’s supervisor for Nevada-California, agreed. “The enhanced understanding of the status of the subspecies is that it is stable — or closer to stable or increasing, than to declining,” he said.

The bistate population is separate from the greater sage grouse population, which also is under consideration for protection in Nevada, California and nine other states. The service has to make that court-ordered decision by Sept. 30 in a legal battle with conservationists that spans over 15 years. Although the agency intends to make the decision on time, formal implementation of a listing for greater sage grouse currently is prohibited under a congressional rider attached to the department’s budget by Western lawmakers who fear such action would trigger new restrictions on ranchers, energy exploration and other development of federal lands.

Jewell said in remarks prepared for a 1 p.m. Monday announcement with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval in Reno that she intends to withdraw the earlier proposal to declare the bistate population threatened. “The collaborative, science-based efforts in Nevada and Californian are proof that we can conserve sagebrush habitat across the West while we encourage sustainable economic development,” she said.

Jason Weller, chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource and Conservation Service, said he believes the 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.

“Today’s decision is only for the bistate sage grouse, but it gives me great hope and optimism,” Weller told the AP. “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.”

Government scientists estimate 2,500 to 9,000 bistate sage grouse are spread across more than 7,000 square miles of sage-brush habitat straddling the Nevada-California line from Carson City to near Yosemite National Park.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife identified the bistate grouse as a distinct subspecies in 2010 and was concerned about the rate of habitat loss when it proposed listing the bird as threatened in 2013, Grim said. But since then, she said various interests from ranchers and gold mines to state, county and federal agencies have committed more than $45 million to restoration efforts over the next 15 years, making listing no longer necessary.

“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 told the AP. “There’s no reason to think the subspecies is at risk now or in the future of going extinct.”