Box Elder ranching family held up as examples of sage grouse stewardship

Don’t bother asking rancher Jay Tanner the first time he saw the mating dance of a greater sage grouse. He can’t remember. The bird is as ingrained in his brain as the landscape of the Della Ranch in Grouse Creek that he runs with his brothers. "It is just something I grew up with. Asking when I saw my first sage grouse is kind of like asking when I saw my first sunrise," Tanner said. For more than 140 years, the Tanner family has worked the land and run cattle on private and federal lands in western Box Elder County. The sage grouse has been a part of the northwestern Utah landscape they cherish, and also make a living on, from the start. They don’t want to see either go away. Neither does the federal government, which is continuing to work toward a September 2015 Endangered Species List announcement about the greater sage grouse. Tanner has been pitching his conservation message to fellow ranchers and landowners for years. He attended the International Sage Grouse Forum in Salt Lake City Thursday, where federal and state officials, along with conservation and wildlife advocacy groups, are reviewing regional efforts to keep the greater sage grouse from ending up on the list. Officials from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert all acknowledged that involvement of private landowners like Tanner are key in keeping the birds from making the list. Herbert used the example of the Tanners to make the case for Utah’s unprecedented campaign to discourage listing the sage grouse as threatened. Last May, state lawmakers paid a lobbyist $2 million to write a report on sage grouse that they intend to use in the campaign. The governor told more than 300 audience members that he doesn’t like the "one-size-fits all" philosophy that comes with a species being listed under the Endangered Species Act. "States should take the lead in trying to solve their unique problems...more