Based on the 30 year projections of burn and recovery speeds, the report predicts a steady and considerable long-term decline in the population of bird across the Great Basin.
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Along with human encroachment on their native habitat, the chief reason for the grouse’s decline is the combination of increased wildfires and invasive cheatgrass.
This funny-looking bird has gained a cult following for its flashy mating dance on YouTube, where videos of the routine have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
“Jewell said Tuesday that she is keeping an “arm’s-length” distance from the listing decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is under her purview and being held to a September 30 court deadline to decide whether to protect the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act”.
So if the sage grouse are hurting, experts are confident the rest of the ecosystem is in trouble as well. According to some experts, placing the birds under protection and banning the access of industries around the Great Basin desert will drastically affect the economy of the surrounding states. These lands produce crude oil, coal, natural gas and farms for beef where 11 states will be greatly affected since they are located in sage grouse territory. According to one study, the overall costs to the US economic output would amount to 5.6 billion dollars.
“I will remain optimistic and hopeful that we can have a similar outcome, but we are all waiting for the Fish and Wildlife Service to make a determination”, Jewell added, saying that efforts that do not involved federal protections are “the way the Endangered Species Act should work”. The ground-dwelling bird is among those 400 species that uses sagebrush steppe.
At one point, their numbers stood at a whopping 16 million, but has now fallen to between 200,000 and 500,000 across eleven Western states in the United States. It’s a huge issue in the inter-mountain West, where a sage grouse listing could restrict energy development, livestock grazing and residential construction.
The sage-grouse live in sagebrush grasslands and mainly eat sagebrush. And while cheatgrass recovers fairly quickly, sagebrush is lost, sometimes forever.
Jewell’s remarks are a “welcome development” if they indicate the agency is heading away from listing the sage grouse as endangered, said Jon Hanian, spokesman for Idaho Gov. Butch Otter.
The study was published by U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday.
“The sage grouse is an umbrella species”, says Coates. But action to help the sage grouse has been controversial.
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Ranching, she added, “can be very compatible” with a healthy sage brush ecosystem – meaning those who want to use the land aren’t necessarily at odds with those who want to save the bird. They also consume much of the leaves of the plant before breeding season.
