U.S., Oregon mark milestone with sage grouse agreement

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown will be in Bend March 27 to celebrate the state’s efforts to conserve greater sage grouse habitat and possibly stave off an endangered species listing. The event coincides with the Oregon Department of State Lands completing a conservation agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that covers 540,484 acres in Eastern Oregon. The document, called a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances, or CCAA, is going through a required public review period. The CCAA is similar to agreements signed with other non-federal landowners throughout the sage grouse range in Eastern Oregon. The federal wildlife service, which implements the Endangered Species Act, previously signed CCAA accords with soil and water conservation districts representing ranchers and other private landowners in Harney, Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Lake, Malheur and southern Union counties. In all, more than 4 million acres of sage grouse habitat is covered under conservation agreements. The state land covered under the agreements includes only an estimated 638 of the state’s 24,000 sage grouse and eight known leks, or breeding areas, but is significant because it makes management plans “seamless across the landscape,” said Lanny Quackenbush, Eastern Oregon manager for the Department of State Lands..more