FWS poised to keep sage grouse off endangered species list
The Obama administration is expected
to announce Tuesday that the sage grouse won't be listed under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA), a decision that would vindicate the extensive conservation
efforts taking place across the West. Western governors, wildlife conservation groups, and energy
companies alike have been anxiously awaiting a “not warranted” listing verdict
on the bird for more than a decade, and have already begun to celebrate the
voluntary conservation efforts they say made such an outcome possible. A no-listing decision would prove that farmer and rancher
investments in conservation “are making a difference” and can “provide the
catalyst for a different kind of politics” that doesn't assume ESA listings are
always necessary, said Eric Holst, the associate vice president for working lands at the Environmental Defense Fund...more
Expect a lot of this Crowing on Collaboration Crap. Why? Because a listing would result in a) an immediate legislative delisting via the budget process, and b) a huge boost to efforts to permanently amend the ESA. The enviros want neither, so expect the CCC show today.
If the Dems controlled both Houses of Congress, the decision may have been different. And I fully expect one of the more radical groups to challenge the RMPs and possible the listing decision itself in court.
Still, one must congratulate those who have worked so hard on this issue. The results have been impressive.
1 comment:
Pretty clever. I was told the Three C's were from the Bruce Babbitt Range Reform effort and now I finally understand that the Three C's are an acronym for "crowing, collaboration, and crap" --- makes sense.
Webster’s dictionary defines collaboration as “To cooperate treasonably, as with an enemy occupying one’s country.”
In Nevada we have a committee that wrote a federally approved state sage grouse plan that has no possibility of increasing the numbers of sage grouse. In fact increasing the numbers of birds is not listed as a goal, just increasing the amount of sagegrouse biologist habitat.
Sage grouse in the Great Basin thrived in the mid-Twentieth Century with peak numbers occurring in 1950-1970 well after the establishment of ranches, roads, and travel by lots of people to mining camps. Sage grouse were hard to find prior to 1850 when the so-called ideal sage grouse habitat was completely undisturbed, entirely natural, and devoid of most wildlife.
Post a Comment