West’s economy, jobs, states rights threatened by sage grouse endangered listing

An endangered listing, said Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, would be “devastating to us.” It could slash the state’s energy exportation, the biggest in the U.S., and that would have a ripple effect.

“It’s not only bad for Wyoming, it’s bad for the country,” he told the Examiner.

An endangered listing, said Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, would be “devastating to us.” (AP file photo)

“This is not a decision to be thrown at us from Washington, D.C., air dropped in on us,” added Utah Sen. Mike Lee. “It certainly is a slap in the face if they would do that,” he said.

At issue is the largest ever Endangered Species Act study in America, covering 11 states and 165 million acres of open sage brush used by the bird and 350 other species, 60 percent of which is owned by Uncle Sam.

The concern: About half the 500,000 square miles once inhabited by millions of greater sage grouse has been taken over by commercial and residential development, energy production, agriculture or destroyed by wildfire, reducing the birds to an estimated 424,645.

“It is an Ice Age bird that got run over by the 21st Century,” said Colorado-based U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Theodore Stein.

But by comparison to the tiny numbers cited when other species were considered for an endangered listing, like the spotted owl and wolves, the sage grouse numbers are enormous, so big that there aren’t hunting bans on the bird, known for its elaborate mating dance.

However, that’s not the point. “We’re not talking about population. We still have a hunting season on these birds on Wyoming,” said Mead. “It’s not a population issue, it’s a habitat issue.”

Exactly, said the Interior Department’s sage grouse guy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals James Lyons. “Ultimately it is about preserving an entire ecosystem. So it’s about conserving the sage brush ecosystem, which I think most experts would agree is the most imperiled ecosystem in North America. And is often the case with an endangered species, the sage grouse is an ‘umbrella species.’ The health of that population is really an indicator of the habitat upon which it depends,” he said in an interview.

Sage Grouse Geography Map Breeding Density/Wild Earth Guardians

What’s unusual, and historic, in the case of the sage grouse is that everyone involved in the issue agrees that sage brush restoration and development is needed. The fight is over which, states or the federal government, will manage it, and what development won’t be allowed.

A bit of history: Back in 2002, some groups sued to list the sage grouse as endangered. In 2010, the Fish and Wildlife Service said listing it as endangered was warranted, but precluded by higher priority listings. A court eventually ordered FWS to make a final determination by the end of this month, although Congress has blocked any protections from taking place.

Instead of digging in, both sides went to work. The states, led by Wyoming, moved to protect sage brush, developing their own plans to push development out of the areas used by male sage grouses for their mating. The birds are notoriously skittish, scared away by noise and even the transmission lines or trees raptors use to stalk and hunt them.

Mead, who issued an executive order to begin the conservation project, said he was motivated by the potential economic hit his state would face if the bird was listed as endangered. By his count, it would cost the state 25,000 jobs and billions of dollars.

He likes to cite a recent Wyoming Law Review article that warned: “Wyoming is staring down the barrel of this dire scenario as the FWS considers listing the greater sage grouse as either threatened or endangered.”

The federal government, led by the Department of Agriculture, joined with the Sage Grouse Initiative, teaming with 1,129 ranches and conserving 4.4 million acres, in a program expected to cost $760 million.

“The Sage Grouse Initiative is making a difference because private landowners voluntarily work with us to produce results on the ground,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The decisions Western ranchers and other private landowners make every day about what to do on their land will continue to have a critical impact on sage grouse.”

The energy industry also made changes, both switching to underground directional drilling and shifting to areas not in the grouse priority “core” area.

“Everybody who has an interest has come to recognize that a worst of all worlds is a listing, because it would in many respects tie people’s hands,” said Interior’s Lyons.

And it might be working. While the population of 424,645 greater sage grouse is a fraction of its historic high, it is about twice what it was a couple of years ago.

A similar effort to help preserve the bi-state sage grouse in California and Nevada prompted Interior last year to withdraw plans to list the bird as endangered. Foes of listing the greater sage grouse as endangered said that is a hopeful sign.

Lyons, who started in government working on the controversial spotted owl fight in the 1990s, said that the joint effort to save the sage grouse and its habitat represents a sea change from the earlier battles.

The American Bird Conservancy is one group pushing for better sage grouse protections.

“It’s a huge effort and I think, in many respects, it reflects 21st Century conservation,” he said, adding he hopes the bird isn’t listed as endangered. “That’s our business. Our job is to bring back species. And the way to bring back species or to prevent them from being listed is to protect the ecosystems upon which they depend,” he said.

Not everybody is on board the effort, however. Several conservation groups are pushing for an endangered listing despite state conservation efforts, suggesting that states cannot be trusted to continue with the efforts once the pressure is off. Some have also questioned newly released plans by the Bureau of Land Management to manage the birds on federal lands no matter what the listing decision is.

“We hope that at the end of the day, these plans produce a ‘glass half full’ outcome and not another disconcerting ‘glass half empty’ disappointment that leads to the end of the grouse,” said Steve Holmer with the American Bird Conservancy.

On the other side, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval issued a eight-page rebuttal of the BLM plan, claiming it ignores his efforts to handle conservation.

Mead said that states should lead the way. “We have the greatest interest in managing wildlife, and, frankly, in my view the greatest expertise. If you care about preservation of the bird, you’ve got to leave it up to the states,” he said.

“Only the administration says we are all getting along. We are mad as hell,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. (AP)

There is little trust in Utah, either, where Republican Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said that either through an endangered listing or the new BLM regulations, the government’s goal is to tie up gas and oil development.

“Only the administration says we are all getting along. We are mad as hell,” said Bishop, behind congressional legislation to defer any listing and also block a listing from impacting military bases.

Distrust of Washington regulators and the Endangered Species Act is also at play.

Mead, for example, said a listing would say that the effort to repair and restore the sage grouse habitat was for nothing. “If it is listed I think it is an indictment of the Endangered Species Act,” he said. And he promised a fight if the efforts aren’t rewarded. “If the bird is listed, we pull all stops,” said the Wyoming governor.

“This is not a decision to be thrown at us from Washington, D.C., air dropped in on us,” said Utah Sen. Mike Lee. (AP)

Utah’s Lee added, “It would also certainly disincentivize state and local government officials in the future from working cooperatively with federal regulators and I think it would almost irreparably harm the relationship between state [and] local government officials and the federal government.”

Still, despite the ill will, many believe that FWS will declare that a listing is not warranted.

“My prediction will be that they are not going to list the bird,” said Mead.

At Interior, Lyons says he understands the concerns in the West. “It’s a common concern that the federal government will in some way negatively impact their communities,” he said.

And no matter what the decision is, he expects it to be greeted with a wave of lawsuits from both sides.

But, in the end, Lyons said the greater sage grouse process, now in its 13th year, should guide how future endangered species cases are handled.

“This strategy and the effort invested reflects a growing recognition of the importance of protecting these landscapes, but also the growing knowledge that if we work together that conservation is not an impediment to economic growth, in fact conservation is the way to achieve sustainable economic growth,” he said.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].