USDA proposes changes to greater sage grouse management

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service proposed changes to how the agency manages greater sage grouse in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah after hearing concerns from states and land users. The changes strive to improve the clarity, efficiency and implementation of the current sage grouse plans...In the 2019 proposed changes, USDA applied lessons learned and concerns voiced by a diverse set of stakeholders, including grazers and other land users. The 2019 plans have been adapted to take into account site-specific conditions to ensure that ranchers, permittees and industry can adapt to their local conditions rather than be forced to conform to a one-size-fits-all, national approach. The 2019 plans allow for greater flexibility and local control of conservation and management actions related to sage grouse, ensuring that habitat can be conserved while enabling grazers to maintain their livelihood. USDA has revised grazing guidelines to shift from rigid, prescriptive standards to commonsense, locally driven strategies. The 2019 plans align state and federal conservation standards so ranchers and other land users have one set of standards instead of dealing with multiple, complex layers of restrictions. The new changes also align mitigation options with state-based systems so mitigation strategies on how to ensure no net loss of habitat are locally supported instead of one size fits all...MORE

Acting Interior Secretary Bernhardt Sued for Gutting Sage Grouse Plans

Conservation groups sued acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the Bureau of Land Management in federal court today over their recent decisions to gut protections for greater sage grouse across millions of acres of public land in the West. Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, identifies Bernhardt as the architect of recent policy changes adopted by the Trump administration to rescind or weaken the 2015 plans on BLM land in seven states with most of the remaining sage-grouse populations ― Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California and Oregon. The challenged plans created enormous loopholes that make it easier for fracking and drilling near the imperiled bird’s prime habitat. The lawsuit notes that these changes were sought by the oil and gas industry, beginning in July 2017, and that Bernhardt and BLM have misled the public about the nature and extent of the changes. In 2016 the groups challenged the plans as not doing enough for sage grouse. The complaint filed today seeks to supplement that case to challenge the recent Trump administration rollbacks. The groups are represented by Advocates for the West, a nonprofit, public-interest law firm based in Boise...MORE

Colorado BLM sells all the oil, gas leases up for bid after dramatically slashing the offerings

All the federal oil and gas leases offered at the Colorado Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly sale were bought Thursday. But the 7,847 acres of public land leased were a far cry from the roughly 224,000 acres of minerals originally on the block. The sale of the leases, mostly in western Colorado, netted a total of $981,143 in rent and fees, which will be split between the federal government and the state of Colorado. In September, the BLM said it would offer leases on parcels totaling 224,341 acres. The agency then pared the offering a few times in response to requests from Gov. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and local elected officials and residents in the North Fork Valley of southwest Colorado. They raised concerns about the potential impacts of drilling on wildlife habitat, tourism and agriculture and approval of leases before the BLM finished updating its resource management plan for the area including the North Fork Valley. Another development was a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Idaho in a lawsuit challenging changes the national BLM office made to shorten the time periods for public comment and revise requirements for environmental review to streamline and speed up leasing. The ruling in September by Chief U.S. Magistrate Ronald Bush in Pocatello, Idaho, temporarily replaced part of the Trump administration’s policy on the leasing of public lands in greater sage grouse habitat.
Colorado BLM officials have said the oil and gas leases pulled from Thursday’s auction could be offered at a later sale...MORE

The Woes of the Western Sage Grouse: Is Reform on the Way?

The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a nonprofit, public interest law firm headquartered in Sacramento, California, that advocates on behalf of “private property rights, individual liberty, free enterprise, limited government, and a balanced approach to environmental protection,” has joined with the Heritage Foundation and other key partners to educate lawmakers and the public about the benefits of the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This is being done through an initiative titled “Red Tape Rollback.” The Congressional Review Act first went into effect under House Speaker Newt Gingrich in March 1996. The law stipulates that regulatory agencies must send rules to both houses of Congress and the Government Accountability Office before the rule can go into effect. Todd Gaziano, chief of legal policy and strategic research for the Pacific Legal Foundation, argues that the sagebrush land use rules are not lawfully in effect and cannot be lawfully implemented since they were never submitted for congressional review. In April, the public interest firm filed suit against the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department to prevent enforcement of the sage grouse land use rules until they are vetted by Congress. Jonathan Wood, PLF’s lead attorney in the case said in a statement: There is no excuse for bureaucrats—who would throw the book at you if you failed to follow their rules—to ignore the rules that Congress has imposed on them . . . Unelected bureaucrats should not be able to rule us without first submitting those rules to our elected representatives. PLF represents a cattle ranching operation in Oakley, Idaho, that could be subjected to federal restrictions on its grazing operations once the sage grouse rules are fully implemented. According to Wood: Our clients are already experiencing the effects of sage grouse rules—last year the Forest Service sent biologists out to study their allotment and grazing . . . Based on that study, the allotment has been identified as valuable habitat for the sage grouse. Consequently, the Forest Service has warned them that restrictions are coming, although they haven’t been announced yet....MORE

Group effort rules the roost in Wyoming, then Washington intervenes

Since taking the helm of the US Interior Department, Ryan Zinke has upset a delicate balance of conservation and energy interests in Wyoming, throwing the fate of the greater sage-grouse into question. Following President Trump’s directive to prioritize energy production, Secretary Zinke has focused on identifying and eliminating any efforts that “unnecessarily burden” energy development. This focus has inevitably made a chicken-sized bird one of the most contentious aspects of Zinke’s 16 months in office. Westerners say the Interior Department’s new energy commitment risks not only the health of the greater sage-grouse, but also the largest land conservation effort in US history. The 2015 greater sage-grouse plan proved that compromise between industry, conservation, and landowners was possible – an example of when US policymaking works. Now stakeholders across the 11 states who signed onto the plan worry that the federal government, even a Republican one, will override years of local cooperation...MORE

Lawsuits target oil, gas leases in sage grouse habitat

A pair of lawsuits filed Monday target the Trump administration's sale of oil and gas leases on huge swaths of Western public lands that contain crucial habitat for an imperiled bird. Wildlife advocates asked courts to reverse lease sales on more than 1,300 square miles (3,400 square kilometers) of land in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, according to attorneys involved. The legal actions also sought to block several upcoming sales unless the U.S. Interior Department conducts further environmental reviews. Those leases would total more than 1,800 square miles (4,662 square kilometers) in the four states plus Idaho. Many of the parcels in dispute are home to greater sage grouse, a chicken-sized, ground-dwelling bird that ranges across portions of 11 Western states. Monday's lawsuits included one in Idaho filed by Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project, and another in Montana by the Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation...MORE

Prisoners grow thousands of sagebrush plants for vulnerable grouse

Participants in a four-year-old program where inmates across the West cultivate sagebrush plants describe their prison yard gardening project as therapeutic, a sanctuary, good for their soul. They’re tending to seedlings that will eventually be the main winter sustenance for the sage grouse, form cover for nests and help restore some of the vulnerable bird’s fast-shrinking habitat, which has been ravaged by wildfires, mining and invasive cheatgrass. Federal officials say the bird’s range has declined by 56 percent from historical levels, and the number of birds is down an estimated 30 percent since 1985. The plants that the inmates cultivate are usually sent to the Bureau of Land Management offices in Elko, Winnemucca and Susanville, CA, where they are planted in clusters usually after wildfires have destroyed existing foliage. Compared with raw seed, which has a 5 percent chance of growing to maturity, months-old “plugs” of sagebrush have a far better chance of survival because they have a more-developed root structure....more

Attorney praises Governor, Zinke for sage grouse actions

By Kent Holsinger

 There are many ruffled feathers about the U.S. Department of the Interior’s efforts to revise land use plan amendments for greater sage-grouse. But critics are telling only part of the story.
Greater sage-grouse inhabit some 165 million acres across 11 Western states. Populations have risen dramatically in recent years due to unprecedented state, local and private conservation efforts and favorable weather patterns (the birds respond well to the wet springs we’ve experienced over the past few years). Never before has such a wide-ranging and numerous species been seriously considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Ever since the historic U.S. Supreme Court case Geer v. Connecticut in 1896, wildlife management has been the job of the states. By contrast, land use plans govern all activities on federal lands. With nearly 70 percent of the land in the West under federal ownership and control, changes to land use plans have wide-ranging impacts on recreation, access, agriculture, water, energy and the environment. The stated purpose of these amendments was to conserve greater sage-grouse to avoid a listing under the ESA. Ironically, the cure is likely worse than the disease. The Obama Administration’s exhaustive regulatory overreach has radically altered the ability to use and enjoy public lands across the West.
After a three-year process with countless meetings and thousands of hours of efforts and input from the states, local governments and others, the Obama Administration altered the land use plans with eleventh-hour edicts from Washington, D.C. Stakeholders erupted in protests and lawsuits (some 283 protests and nine lawsuits) making this arguably one of the most controversial federal land management actions in U.S. history.
Not surprisingly, a federal court in Nevada has already held these Washington, D.C. mandates were unlawful and ordered the Trump Administration back to the drawing board. Unless settled out of court, similar results are likely to follow in the other lawsuits brought by states, local governments, industry and agriculture.
In addition to the missteps on process, the plan amendments are substantively flawed. Key agency reports behind the amendments, as well as the listing decision for sage grouse, were plagued with conflicts of interest, bias and selective citation. They ignored the most relevant factors to grouse populations (weather, predation and hunter harvest) in favor of draconian restrictions that will cost jobs and harm local communities without corresponding benefits to the species. Detailed Information Quality Act challenges based on these issues were never adequately answered by the previous administration.
Were it not for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recent actions, these flawed measures could govern public land use in the West for decades. Some environmental groups, predictably, cry wolf and threaten litigation. But litigation does absolutely nothing to further on-the-ground conservation work.

READ ENTIRE OP-ED 

Wyoming's quiet governor faces a brash Interior Secretary, with a bird in the balance

Heather Richards and Arno Rosenfeld

To understand the latest battle over the greater sage grouse one need look no further than how Matt Mead and Ryan Zinke present themselves. Consider the bicep. For Zinke, the Interior Secretary, that’s easy. The department’s website offers a shot of the 56-year-old fly fishing, his flexed arm extended just so. Mead has formidable arms of his own. But the Wyoming governor poses in suits. Or shirtsleeves. Of course, this isn’t a story about the biceps of western politicians. But it is about a federal administrator who seems close to unraveling one of the governor’s signature achievements — preserving sage grouse protections — and attacking one of Mead’s core beliefs about how politics should be conducted. Over the summer, Zinke opened a 60-day review of those federal sage grouse management plans put in place to stop the bird from being listed as an endangered species. The review was followed by a notice in the federal register signaling key aspects will be reconsidered. The public has 45 days to respond. The rushed timeline and long-term risk of weaker plans have led to strange bed fellows looking at Mead as their reluctant champion. And so onto a political landscape, where animosity is increasingly standard, struts an oblivious bird with a bright yellow chest, a swaggering former Navy SEAL-turned-bureaucrat and a mild-mannered western governor who doesn’t believe ruffling feathers gets the job done. It takes time for those new to the sage grouse dance to pick up its rhythm, the political, social and economic resonance it has across the West. From keeping Wyoming’s landscape open and wild to exploring for oil and gas and running livestock, virtually every western issue overlaps with the bird and conserving the places where it lives. This isn’t as simple as whether the bird can coexist with a drilling rig. Experts say it’s about finding a way to repair a damaged habitat while maintaining the industries and interests of the people who love the West, the people who live and work in it. “It affects everything. Industry — where they can drill, ranchers — how they graze their cattle,” said Dan Smitherman, Wyoming representative for the Wilderness Society, which opposes wholesale changes to the sage grouse plans that also protect the habitat of about 350 other species...more

Study: Grazing shows little effect on grouse nesting

As habitat loss and fragmentation continue to threaten the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a study in Montana found livestock grazing seems to have little impact on the bird’s nest success, and rotational grazing, meant to improve habitat for the grouse, offers little benefit. “We were surprised,” said Joe Smith, lead author of the study on early view in the Journal of Wildlife Management and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Montana’s wildlife biology program. “We thought nest success was going to be the mechanism where these grazing systems were going to have a big effect.” Previous studies had shown a strong link between grass height near the nests and nest survival, Smith said, suggesting that taller grasses provide important cover to protect the birds from nest predators. But his team found no such link. Instead, Smith said, other changes in land use, including conversion to cropland, oil and gas operations and infrastructure development, may have far greater impacts on greater sage grouse than ranching. “We may have focused disproportionately on grazing, given how little information we really have about how it affects the population,” he said. “I think it’s important to stay focused on these broad-scale drivers of ongoing habitat loss first and foremost. In the counties where our study took place, I can identify at least four different parcels that have been converted from native grassland to cropland in the last 10 years, and each one is several thousand acres. Those are big habitat losses that are happening overnight.” The study found nesting success was similar among different grazing management systems, and rotational grazing, which keeps livestock off of designated areas to allow vegetation to recover, didn’t increase nest survival...more

Livestock grazing management compatible with nesting greater sage-grouse

The extent of sagebrush in western North America has declined significantly in recent years, which has resulted in concomitant effects on an array of wildlife, such as nesting greater sage-grouse, a species that is highly sensitive to disturbances and has been at the center of a historic conservation effort. Scientists assessed the effects of rotational grazing management and rest from grazing on daily survival rates of nearly 500 sage-grouse nests monitored over 6 years in central Montana. Nest success was similar among the different grazing management systems examined and there was no evidence that rest from grazing (?12 months) increased daily survival rates of nesting sage-grouse. Furthermore, rotational grazing systems and rest had negligible effects on vegetation height and cover relative to other grazing strategies used in the study area. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recently ordered a review of current sage grouse management plans, saying he wanted to balance the bird's conservation with local economic growth. The review task force recommended relaxing rules related to grazing management. The authors noted that the foremost conservation priority should be the prevention of further loss and fragmentation of sagebrush landscapes from land uses and activities that negatively affect sage-grouse populations. "The biggest take-away from our study was that there's more than one way to manage livestock grazing in a way that's compatible with nesting sage-grouse," said Joe Smith, lead author of the study...PHS.ORG

Interior Department to Overhaul Obama’s Sage Grouse Protection Plan

The Trump administration will seek to reconsider an Obama-era blueprint for protecting the greater sage grouse, a move that could lead to new mineral leasing, grazing and other commercial activities across the quirky bird’s Western habitat. The Interior Department intends this week to publish a formal notice of intent to amend 98 sage grouse habitat management plans across 10 states, according to multiple agency and state officials who have been briefed on the effort. Those plans, completed in 2015, were adopted after a decade of negotiations among conservationists, sportsmen and extraction industries as well as federal, state, local and tribal authorities. The agency’s decision is not entirely unexpected. Earlier this year, Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, ordered a review of the sage grouse plans, in part to determine whether they were hindering energy production. A task force recommended changes that could loosen protections for the bird. Environmental activists say reopening the plans, as opposed to making adjustments administratively, threatens to dismantle protections altogether. But oil and gas industry leaders hailed the move as overdue. “I’m happy to see that it looks like it’s coming out,” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said of the Interior Department notice. She called the state plans developed under the Obama administration a “deeply flawed” one-size-fits-all approach that exaggerated the threats posed by natural resource extraction...more

Researchers study economic impacts of sage grouse conservation on ranches

John O’ConnellCapital Press


Volumes have been published on conservation approaches to benefit embattled Western sage grouse populations, but economist John Tanaka believes researchers have largely overlooked how such strategies affect ranchers’ bottom lines. Tanaka, associate director of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, and his research team have started working on a model to estimate the economic impacts of sage grouse management practices on ranches of varying sizes and distributions of public and private grazing land. The model will be used to develop at least 36 enterprise budgets covering hypothetical ranches in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montana and Nevada. “From an economic standpoint, nobody has ever looked at if what we’re proposing ranchers do to enhance sage grouse habitat is going to enhance their bottom line,” Tanaka said, adding the data should help guide decisions of land managers and ranchers. Local USDA offices will help Tanaka’s team recruit ranchers to serve on small focus groups and provide baseline data on regional industry practices. To model likely outcomes of management practices, Tanaka’s team will interview scientists, land managers and ranchers. “We’re trying to find a representative response, not a specific ranch response,” Tanaka said. “We’ll use expert opinion and anecdotal evidence where we need to.” Tanaka’s team also includes principal researchers Kristie Maczko, director of the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable, and University of Wyoming agricultural economist John Ritten. Their work is funded by a nearly $500,000 grant from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and they expect to complete the model by next May...more

Sage grouse conservation changes praised by some

President Donald Trump’s administration has opened the door to industry-friendly changes to a sweeping plan imposed by his predecessor to protect a ground-dwelling bird across vast areas of the West. Wildlife advocates warn that the proposed changes would undercut a hard-won struggle to protect the greater sage grouse. Representatives of the ranching and energy industries cheered the policy shift as needed to give states flexibility. A document outlining the recommended changes was released last week by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. It recognized for the first time the importance of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. It also backed away from requirements to keep rangeland grasses and shrubs at a prescribed minimum height, which ranchers had complained was arbitrary. “I was very pleased with what I saw there in terms of the tone,” Magagna said. The proposed changes, the result of a 60-day review of the plan by Zinke’s agency, could give states wiggle room in areas such as setting population goals for sage grouse and drawing boundaries of recognized sage grouse habitat...more

Editorial: Western perspective from Zinke changes sage grouse policy

Federal officials are beginning to realize that cattle are not the enemy of wildlife on the open range.

When a team of Interior Department officials this week released a proposal to loosen land use restrictions in sage grouse country, they included a positive statement on the impact of livestock grazing on sage grouse habitat. The document says “proper grazing management is compatible with conserving GRSG habitat and, in some situations, may support or benefit habitat management.”

That change in policy is a victory for ranchers and a victory for Nevada, which went to great lengths under Gov. Brian Sandoval to craft a state-specific sage grouse conservation plan. Under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s order, states will have more leeway when it comes to decisions involving traditional land uses such as grazing, mining and energy production.

Adopting a more flexible sage grouse policy that includes state and local guidance makes sense. That was the original goal here in Nevada, before our state was molded in with the rest of the West. 

 

One of the nine people on the Interior’s Sage Grouse Review Team is none other than John Ruhs, former Nevada Bureau of Land Management director and now the federal agency’s deputy director of operations. As state director, Ruhs declared that “a collaborative network of local, state and federal partners is essential for protecting the sagebrush ecosystem while ensuring multiple uses.”

The change is also a victory for Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Elko County Commissioners.

“I agree with Secretary Zinke that the federal government and Nevada can protect the sage-grouse and its habitat, while also ensuring that conservation efforts do not undermine job growth and local communities,” Laxalt said in response to this week’s announcement.

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California Commission Halts Hunting of Imperiled Sage Grouse

The California Fish and Game Commission today voted to prohibit sage grouse hunting during the 2017–2018 season, citing spring surveys that revealed alarming and continuing declines in all sage grouse populations in the state. The Center for Biological Diversity has for years urged the commission to end sage grouse hunting due to declining populations. “The commission did the right thing by prohibiting sage grouse hunting in California this season,” said Lisa Belenky, a senior attorney at the Center. “This is one small step in the right direction. But to truly save this iconic Western bird from extinction, we’ve got to protect its rapidly disappearing habitat.” The California Department of Fish and Game initially proposed allowing a range of hunting limits for each of four hunting zones in 2017. In June the department reversed its recommendation based a spring survey that showed alarming declines in male birds on their “leks,” or mating grounds, where they conduct their spectacular mating-dance rituals...more

Why the Trump Administration Is Targeting This Rare Bird (SO 3353)

For half a decade, the sage grouse held the dubious honor of being one of the most fought over birds in the United States as conservationists tried to guard its habitat while landowners countered that such protections could slow economic growth. After years of review, stakeholders reached an agreement in 2015 to avoid listing the species as endangered, prompting strict rules about its habitat. Now, President Trump's Department of Interior has launched a 60-day review of the species protection plan negotiated by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, 11 states and landowners. The order, issued by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, says the review process will consider improvements to conservation efforts while taking into account "the value of energy and other development of public lands." Oil and gas energy interests engaged in the process of developing a plan to save the species, but viewed the outcome as a mixed result. The lack of an endangered species represented a win, though the companies remained unhappy that the federal government retained authority to manage the species on public land...more

Secretarial Orer 3353 is embedded below 


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtNFl2R2xkNDRJTFk/view?usp=sharing

Interior chief to review sage-grouse conservation plan

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday he is ordering a review of federal efforts to conserve the imperiled sage grouse to ensure that officials in 11 Western states where the bird lives are fully consulted. While the federal government has a responsibility under the Endangered Species Act to protect the ground-dwelling bird, "we also have a responsibility to be a good neighbor and a good partner," Zinke said. Zinke made the comments Wednesday as he announced a 60-day review of a sweeping 2015 conservation plan put in place by the Obama administration. The plan set land-use policies across the popular game bird's 11-state range that were intended to keep it off the endangered species list. The plan was backed by more than $750 million in commitments from the government and outside groups to conserve land and restore the bird's range, which extends from California to the Dakotas. Even so, the plan drew criticism from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Environmental groups complained it was riddled with loopholes and would not do enough to protect the bird from extinction, while mining companies, ranchers and officials in Utah, Idaho and Nevada argued that the Obama administration's actions would impede oil and gas drilling and other economic development. The ground-dwelling sage grouse, known for its elaborate mating ritual, range across a 257,000-square-mile region spanning 11 states...more

Battle royale looms as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke mulls overhaul of plans to protect sage grouse habitat

Western leaders, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, are opposing a possible Trump administration push to overhaul federal plans for protecting greater sage grouse across a Texas-sized area in 10 states. Those plans were negotiated over five years by state and federal wildlife officials — with private landowners, conservationists and industry groups participating — as an alternative to listing the imperiled sage grouse as an endangered species. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last week stayed mum on whether he’ll move ahead on a review of the plans. “Secretary Zinke has made clear his commitment to working with, rather than against, local communities and being a good neighbor to private landowners,” Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a prepared statement. “The Interior Department is looking forward to working with state and local partners to ensure we are striking a true balance between both conservation and responsible multiple use of our public lands.” Hickenlooper, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went to Washington, D.C., recently and raised their concerns in a meeting with Zinke. Hickenlooper and Mead also sent Zinke letters dated April 19 and May 26 opposing proposed changes that would move “from a habitat-management model to one that sets population objectives for the states,” they wrote. “This is not the right decision,” they wrote...more

Here is the letter from Gov's Meade and Hickenlooper 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtTThkc3lseXhzVUk/view?usp=sharing

Sage grouse are being airlifted into southwestern North Dakota

Sage grouse are being airlifted into southwestern North Dakota with high hopes that this native bird can be saved here. The operation airlift started last week, and it may be another week until the state Game and Fish Department crew is able to capture enough wild birds in Wyoming to meet its goal of 40 females and 20 males. The once plentiful bird has declined to near extinction in this state and the ongoing project to transplant them and hopefully reinvigorate the population has an air of desperation. “We’re at the end of our rope here, and we’re doing whatever we can to keep the population from being extirpated,” said upland game management supervisor Aaron Robinson. “Extirpated” is another word for disappeared or wiped out. No question, the numbers here are bleak: There are maybe 10 males, where once 400 strutted and danced for the hens in the claypan flats and big sagebrush country in southwestern Bowman County, edging up into Slope County, Robinson said. West Nile is one killer over time but so is the lost big sagebrush habitat, fragmented by the development of oil and gas wells. Robinson is catching some shuteye when he can and is up all night with the crew, searching for and spotlighting grouse on a lek, or dancing grounds, in southern Wyoming near Rawlins. It’s spring and the birds are congregating for the annual mating ritual, though the females are for some reason hanging back this year. When enough birds are ready to go, they’re individually boxed, flown in and quietly released on a known lek on remote Bureau of Land Management land in Bowman County. The quick flight in a Cessna 182 is less traumatic to the birds than a nine-hour drive...more

No cost figures are given.