If
Secretary Jewell really wanted to do something to help the sage grouse,
she would take the raven off the Migratory Bird Treaty list, which in
reality protects the raven. The number of ravens in Nevada and elsewhere
has increased at least 600 percent. This is from their historic level,
to where today there are more ravens than sage grouse.
The
Department of Interior has studies which prove 80 percent of the sage
drouse nests are being depredated. The studies also show the ravens are
responsible for at least 50 percent of the nests depredated. Coyotes and
badgers also ravage the nests of the sage grouse. Coyotes also kill a
large number of the chicks, as well as many of the adult birds.
The ravens are now destroying the nests and eating the sage
grouse eggs, yet the government insists on protecting the raven. It is
hard for a species to hold their own or increase when the population is
not being replaced by their young.
Secretary Jewell also
stated the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been working with
environmentalists and officials in the Western States to find a
solution to protect the species and its habitat without a formal
listing. What a joke, the environmentalists all want the bird listed.
They want to get rid of the miners and ranchers as well as other users
of the public lands.
The only people that can really improve the habitat are the users who
are out on the land day in and day out. They are the ones who irrigate
the meadows, plant alfalfa while increasing the habitat for the sage
grouse. The people on the ground, who work for the BLM, could and would
improve the habitat, however they are for the most part stymied by the
higher-ups in Washington D.C.
