Sage-grouse Listing 'Precluded'

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friday, March 5, announced its decision to list the greater sage-grouse a step short of threatened or endangered. Fish and Wildlife says listing is "warranted but precluded." Simply put, that means a sage-grouse listing is deferred while Fish and Wildlife works on species with more immediate needs. The decision makes sage-grouse one of nearly 279 candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act. And states would continue to manage the bird. "The sage grouse's decline reflects the extent to which open land in the West has been developed in the last century," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. "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." Meanwhile, Idaho Fish and Game will continue to manage sage-grouse and monitor sage-grouse populations and habitats. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will decide at its August 2010 meeting whether hunting is appropriate in 2010. Hunting would still be legally possible. Other candidate species, such as the lesser prairie chickens in Kansas, are hunted. Sage-grouse hunting seasons in Idaho already are conservative and closely monitored. The Idaho Sage-grouse Conservation Plan, completed in 2006, provides guidelines for setting seasons. The guidelines are based on trends in spring lek counts as well as other biological data for individual populations, including chick survival, effects of West Nile virus and wildfires. Fish and Game already works with private landowners and with local working groups on sage-grouse habitat conservation projects, such as a recently signed 30-year Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances between landowners, Fish and Game and federal agencies, which protects up to 644,000 acres of sage grouse habitat around Weiser, Midvale and Cambridge. Officials are negotiating similar pacts elsewhere in Idaho, Wyoming and other western states. "There is much we can accomplish for sage-grouse, working with private landowners who care about the future of this iconic western species," Assistant Secretary of the Interior Tom Strickland said. "Voluntary conservation efforts on private lands, when combined with successful state and federal strategies, hold the key to the long-term survival of the greater sage-grouse." The Fish and Wildlife Service will review the status of the species annually, as it does with all candidate species, and will propose the species for protection when funding and workload priorities for other listing actions allow. For information about sage-grouse status, go to the Fish and Wildlife Service Web site: http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/birds/sagegrouse/.