Sage Grouse Saga Continues

The sage grouse ‘listing’ saga continues unabated in Montana. To date the many working groups, advisory boards, committees, etc. have spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars on this issue. Why? Because the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is threatening to list the bird as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The ESA defines a ‘threatened species’ as, “any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future...” and an ‘endangered species’ as, “any species which is in danger of extinction.....” You would be hard pressed to find anyone who believes the sage grouse in Montana are in danger of becoming extinct in the foreseeable future.

So why are we worrying about a listing in Montana if these birds do not meet the listing criteria? It is because the definitions go on to say, “throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” Apparently, sage grouse are in trouble in other states (Nevada, Utah....) which somehow justifies listing the entire population. I wish someone would explain how spending untold amounts of time, money and effort on Montana’s grouse will help recover the populations in other states. Would it not make a lot more sense to focus the limited resources on the problem areas?

To add insult to injury, the governor plans to appoint another advisory board that will oversee the implementation of the unnecessary and overbearing management plan. The worst part is he will ask the legislature for $10 million and 5.5 FTEs (full time employees)! Apparently, 80 percent ($8 million) has already been earmarked for conservation easements (a blatant land grab). Talk about throwing valuable resources at a non-problem!

In the late 1970s or early 1980s then State Senator Ed Smith from Dagmar carried a bill through the legislature that earmarked an increase in the upland game bird license to fund ring-necked pheasant releases. FWP convinced the legislature to divert the bulk of these funds into an upland game bird habitat program. Since the inception of this program, millions of dollars have been expended on upland game bird habitat projects.

It would be interesting to know how many of these dollars have been spent on sage grouse habitat improvement or restoration over the years. Probably very little since sage grouse were not considered a ‘species of concern’ until nongovernmental organizations decided they could use them to remove cattle from all federal rangelands (the spotted owl of the plains). Why not use these monies to fund the governor’s program.

Actually the governor should dismiss all of the working groups and advisory boards and return management of the sage grouse to Montana’s wildlife management agency - FWP. This would take sage grouse management out of the political arena and put it into the hands of trained, local, biologists. These individuals would continue to collect monitoring data to prove this species will not go extinct in the foreseeable future. Their data will also identify problem areas where upland game bird habitat funds could be directed on a case-by-case basis.

If, and only if, the data suggests the species may go extinct in the foreseeable future, then by all means list it!