# Last Dance of the Sage Grouse



## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Cross posted by permission of the author. If you read nothing else, read the last line of the article.

_Written by Jim Fuglie	Note: This article appears in the current issue of Dakota Country magazine, a monthly outdoors publication headquartered in Bismarck. I write a regular monthly article for the magazine focusing on the oil industry's impact on the North Dakota Badlands. You can find subscription information on the magazine's website, http://www.dakotacountrymagazine.com._

I've shot probably half a dozen, or maybe as many as ten, sage grouse in my life. I'm likely among a small group of North Dakotans alive today who can say that. And that group is not going to get any bigger. Ever. Because there's an awfully good chance we'll never have another sage grouse season in North Dakota. In fact, I've had a wildlife biologist tell me flat out this spring that he thinks within the next three years the sage grouse will be gone from the prairie in North Dakota. Completely gone. Here's their story.

I grew up in southwest North Dakota, in a hunting family. Sometime when I was in my late teens, my dad befriended a rancher from the Rhame area in Slope County, who invited us to come and hunt sage grouse at his place. We did. (In an incredible coincidental set of circumstances, I later married that rancher's daughter. But that's another story. I told it a year or so ago. You can read it here if you missed it.) I don't remember a lot of details of that first sage grouse hunt, other than it was the biggest bird I had ever shot-we didn't have a huntable population of geese in our area in those days, and I wasn't a turkey hunter then. We hunted sage grouse off and on over the next ten or so years. Those were my first real experiences with the North Dakota Badlands. I've been hooked ever since, not so much for hunting, but for the appreciation of the fragile ecosystem that provides such a wide range of outdoor experiences.

I had another one of those experiences this spring, when I traveled back to that same area to watch the sage grouse perform their Spring mating rituals. I had never seen that before. I can hardly find words to describe it. It's one of those things you have to see to believe and understand. I got to see the ritual early one morning, thanks to the biologists at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, who were willing to share a lek location with me and a couple of my friends.

We call it a "dance," but it's not so much a dance, as sharptail grouse do, but a "strut." Males gather in early morning and perform for their hoped-for mates, spreading their spikey tails and puffing up the air-sacs in their chests to almost unbelievable volumes. I have never seen such a prideful display-pride well-deserved-in any other outdoor experience I've ever witnessed.

It's a good thing I saw it. Because this spring the mood of biologists doing the annual Spring Sage Grouse Count was gloomy, and it may portend the unthinkable-the disappearance of another species from the North Dakota prairie.

Each year, in April, the Game and Fish biologists set up camp in Slope County, north of Marmarth, and spend most of a week visiting known leks to check on the population and condition of sage grouse. They've been doing it for 50 years. This year they counted just 31 male sage grouse. An all-time low. Down from a peak of more than 500 many years ago, down from counts of 50 to 75 in recent years.

The biologists had to halt sage grouse hunting in the state 2008 after the birds suffered a two-year bout with West Nile Virus. Prior to that, the season was a brief one, a week at most, sometimes just one weekend as I recall, with a limit of one bird per hunter per year, restrictions so limiting that few hunters actually took advantage of the opportunity to hunt.

Too bad, because it was a great hunt. It happened early in the fall, around Labor Day, when the weather was pleasant for an early morning hike in the Badlands. If you knew a friendly rancher, or had a good Grasslands map, and had done a little scouting, you could pick a dry creek bed or two to walk through, with or without a pointing dog, take a bird, and be back in Rhame for a late breakfast at the café.

Now, the population is so low that it may have gone beyond the birds' ability to rebound. Because it wasn't just West Nile decimating the bird numbers. It was the combination of the disease and massive oil development in the critical habitat range of the birds that led to a "perfect storm." I spoke with both federal and state biologists after my return from my trip, and both said the same thing: West Nile Virus hit the population hard in 2007 and 2008, but at the same time, the fragmentation of their habitat range created huge reproductive problems for the birds.

"West Nile comes and goes, but the population recovers from that," one biologist told me. "But when you destroy the habitat, they can't recover from that." He used the example of cutting your arm versus cutting your arm off. If you cut your arm, it will eventually heal, but if you cut your arm off, it's gone forever.

Both state and federal biologists (I'm not going to use their names here, because they have jobs to look out for and families to feed, even though they all gave me permission do so) told me the critical problems now are fragmentation of the habitat and loss of habitat, caused by oil and gas exploration. One said that the sage grouse might be able to withstand one oil well per square mile, but in the critical habitat area of Bowman County, in many places there are three or four wells per square mile. The impact once you get beyond one well per square mile is exponential, he said. And then he surprised me with this: "Go ahead and use my name. I'm sick and tired of everyone walking on eggshells. This massive oil and gas development is bad for wildlife, and not just sage grouse. There are other species suffering just as bad." Pronghorn antelope. Mule deer. Sharptail grouse. He didn't mention them. He didn't have to. We all know that.

I can verify his claims about the loss of sage grouse habitat and fragmentation. I drove for a couple of hours through the area I used to hunt, 50 or so miles of gravel roads. Once there was only one main road through that area, and no one used it at that time of the day but me, ranchers out checking cows, and the critters. Today it is criss-crossed with dozens and dozens of roads and home to an almost unbelievable number of oil well and tank battery sites. It's the area mostly south of U.S. Highway 12 in Bowman and Slope Counties. It's the southern end of our Badlands, and it is well-hidden from the highway, so no one really realizes the massive-and I do mean massive-scale of the development. We drove past a wastewater recovery site the size of a small town, as big as the town of Marmarth, where we spent a couple nights. The truck traffic is beyond comprehension. It is no wonder the birds cannot survive there.

To their credit, the biologists are not giving up on the birds. The State Game and Fish Department has written plans to try to save them. The plans have two focuses: First, to try to conserve the remaining population and its habitat-survival-and second, to try to improve the conditions the birds need to grow in numbers-recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with landowners to improve habitat in nearby areas away from the intensive oil development, trying to lure the birds to a more wildlife-friendly area where they might be able to survive, and even thrive.

There is much talk of listing the birds as an endangered species. That's freaking everybody out-the state wildlife agencies, the ranchers, the energy industry, the chambers of commerce, and the elected officials in the states the birds call home. State wildlife agencies believe they are better equipped to deal with the problem on a state-by-state basis, rather than have a bunch of federal regulations slapped on them. Ranchers don't welcome restrictions on what they may or may not be able to do on their own land, and especially on land they lease from the Forest Service and BLM. The energy industry and the industry's allies in the chamber of commerce offices fear intrusive regulation of the oil and gas industry-and well they should, because that's who's causing most of the problems. And the politicians in these western states generally take up the side of the industry. Indeed, our own North Dakota Game and Fish Department director recently attended a meeting in Denver, a "governor's-level meeting," to discuss strategy that can be used by the states to avoid listing the bird as endangered.

In spite of all that, the ones we need to listen to are the biologists. But at this point, either because of, or in spite of, everything man does, the biologists say, "It's up to the birds." We'll have to see if they can adapt to a new environment. Disease will continue to take a toll from time to time, and so will predators, although almost everyone told me that disease issues are fleeting, and predation is overrated as a problem for the birds. Fragmentation of habitat, and loss of habitat, will continue to be the biggest problems. Oil and gas development.

There's a new normal. And the birds are going to have to adapt to that. If they can, they will survive and perhaps, someday, thrive. *More likely, one biologist told me, "Within three years, we'll see the last dance of the sage grouse in North Dakota."*
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That's how you spell the ND Clean Water, Wildlife, and Parks Amendment.


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

Mr. Jim Fuglie wrote,



> I can verify his claims about the loss of sage grouse habitat and fragmentation. I drove for a couple of hours through the area I used to hunt, 50 or so miles of gravel roads.


I wonder what Mr. Fuglie puts in his gas tank?


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

I don't think Jim is saying stop all oil development or farming! The article simply points out that modern day "progress" has permanent far reaching consequences for native wildlife, in this case, sage grouse in particular.
He reports that rehab measures are being attempted hopefully with cooperation from the Fed, various state agencies and oil companies. Nuttin wrong with that, IMO. 
Shang, you've been getting automatic knee jerk negative lessons from GST for too long!  remember that old saying " a closed mind has no visitors!"


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## spentwings (Apr 25, 2007)

Habitat Hugger said:


> Shang, you've been getting automatic knee jerk negative lessons from GST for too long!  remember that old saying " a closed mind has no visitors!"


*Hear, hear!*


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

Dr. bobkat wrote,



> Shang, you've been getting automatic knee jerk negative lessons from GST for too long! remember that old saying " a closed mind has no visitors!"


During the 2013 legislative session I met gst. Had lunch. What a hoot. He has a lot of friends who came with. Bob, in person I do believe you would like him.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

That depends Shaug. Is this what you would call a hoot?



> Plains, would you like to hear a funny story. Swift is married to a doctor and she works with two other doctors who I believe own the practice. Mauser copied all the yelling from behind the dumpster Swift was posting and sent it to the doctors. The End.


The same guy on fishingbuddy posted information on swift. It was a web page with his wifes name, picture etc. There are some sick people out there. That's why I don't encourage divulging to much information to people. This is the web and some people are destructive and hateful.


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

Anonymity may reduce the accountability one perceives to have for their actions, and removes the impact these actions might otherwise have on their reputation. This can have dramatic effects, both useful and harmful to various parties and/or entities involved, relatively. Thus, it may be used for psychological tactics involving any respective party to purport and/or support and/or discredit any sort of activity or belief.


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

GST is probably a good guy and I'd love to meet him someday. If you meet someone in person , BS a bit over coffee and all that, then often, USUALLY you find yourselves on the same page of most issues, and not only get along fine, but can lean a lot from the other guys life experiences and personal knowledge. I suspect that would be the case in GST. Sometimes I wonder if he has Aspergers or something. We know there are thousands of in diagnosed people either it out there! Highly intelligent, usually a bit crotchety and opinionated, etc. He seems to spend a lot of time on the Internet, unlike the many other busy hard working farmers/ ranchers I know. At least he isn't on the internet continually because he's awaiting sentencing like another poster who shall remain unamed. LOL
What's the deal with swift! Haven't seen him post for a long time. Did GST backstabbing him or something? It's one thing to des agree on a web site, but purely another to backstab a guy like your post inferred. I may have to take what I said about GST being a good guy back!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

shaug said:


> Anonymity may reduce the accountability one perceives to have for their actions, and removes the impact these actions might otherwise have on their reputation. This can have dramatic effects, both useful and harmful to various parties and/or entities involved, relatively. Thus, it may be used for psychological tactics involving any respective party to purport and/or support and/or discredit any sort of activity or belief.


I notice you often complain about people not using their real name, but never use your own. I also notice if you know someone you will more often than not use their name. If your not going to be a hypocrite use your own name or keep quiet. You know the old saying put up or shut up right? I have called you on this a half dozen times, but you still have not worked up the courage. 
I seen the post Fritz the cat made on Fishingbuddy. I thought it was deplorable.


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## LT (Mar 12, 2008)

Plainsman, Where was your outrage when one of your moderators on this board revealed my connection to a California Hospital on this board during the high fence debacle. Unbelievable that a moderator and then somehow Swift knew that I was signed into this board using a California IP address.

Swift Stated:


> LT where is the land you have now that is not posted in ND or *California?* I would bet any land you control now is posted tight anyway, same goes for you Ladoux79. As much as you don't want to be told what to do we don't want to be threatened!


LT Replied:


> Swift,
> 
> How wrong you are. We presently own land that we allow people in North Dakota to hunt on. I don't have land in California, have never stepped foot in California. Only because some moderator reavealed my personal information on this board does anyone even know that I had any connection to California. That IP address was for a remote VPN connection that I had with a California hospital that I worked for out of my home.


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86491&p=691595#p691595

YEP, THERE ARE SOME SICK PEOPLE OUT THERE.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> YEP, THERE ARE SOME SICK PEOPLE OUT THERE.


Yes there is. I hope no one revealed who you worked for or anything like that. I have always told people it's unwise to reveal to much information on the internet, and I have always told people if someone is not using their real name they should not use their name. It's simply a form of disrespect, and I loose respect for people who constantly do that. People keep their identities from public knowledge for many reasons. That's their business and we should all respect it. I often challenge people who challenge others but don't reveal their own. Remember people posting on what a jerk I was at a meeting I didn't even attend? We could all be a little more careful.

There are always ways for people to get information. I can't for the life of me understand how people figured out who swift was. For you to think a moderator had to reveal it makes you as guilty as anyone else who makes false claims. As a matter of fact moderators at that time didn't get a lot of information. Heck I had no idea who you were and actually still don't.


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

Plainsman knows who everybody is.



> Forward that PM if possible would you. I would like the ip address off of it. Copy and past if it can't be forwarded. Maybe that will work.


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3234&start=40


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

shaug said:


> Plainsman knows who everybody is.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Shaug don't you ever get tired of being wrong?


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## LT (Mar 12, 2008)

Plainsman Stated:


> There are always ways for people to get information. I can't for the life of me understand how people figured out who swift was. For you to think a moderator had to reveal it makes you as guilty as anyone else who makes false claims. As a matter of fact moderators at that time didn't get a lot of information. Heck I had no idea who you were and actually still don't.


My, my plainsman how you seem to forget, but all you have to do is go back in old threads. :roll:

Here is an old conversation we had:

_Plainsman,

Your typical responses of trying to spin everything. You did this two years ago.

One thing maybe you should be smarter about is who you PM. Do you remember PMing me and telling me how you were laughing at me, that you actually did know my IP addresses, my ND address and my California address? You PM'd me this after you had just stated to me on the Nodak forums that yes, you do obtain IP addresses if someone is sending out threatening PMs. Now why would you have my IP addresses when I have never sent out a threatening PM, and why did Ryan post my personal information regarding my UCSF connection. As moderators why would you PM me laughing at me about this and why would a moderator post my personal info?

* Yes LT I do want you to answer that. Do you feel Berkeley (or UCSF)gives you a feeling of moral or intellectual superiority? Just curious?

Ryan
*

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52692&start=120

I will tell you that is why I never revealed who I was on this board, as it was pretty obvious this was a loaded forum. I even quit posting for quite awhile after my info was revealed.

I am not a lawyer as some thought because of my UCSF connection, I am not an operator. I am just a little medical secretary who happened to be working for UCSF when you obtained my IP address. I am the sister of Dwight Grosz. My name is Lynell Tagestad._


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## LT (Mar 12, 2008)

Plainsman Stated:


> For you to think a moderator had to reveal it makes you as guilty as anyone else who makes false claims.


Really plainsman? You know as well as I do that Ryan was a moderator on this board during the high fence issue. Here is your response to the above conversation when I stated that a moderator had revealed my address:

Plainsman Stated:


> Don't hold me accountable for Ryan. It's not like we often agreed. Also, he was the computer genius not me.


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86288&p=689861&hilit=+California#p689861


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I found myself seldom agreeing with RYAN, and if someone accused him at that time I may also have suspected it. However I still don't understand how it would have been possible for him. Destructive behavior of the long past does not justify destructive behavior today it only exposes a hateful mind. Three years and it's time to put those things to rest. I see some are so vindictive the call nodak nodakouthouse on other sites because they want to destroy. That's childish. Time to put hate to rest. The complaints you have should be in PM's if not meant as destructive. If you want to discuss further PM me.


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## LT (Mar 12, 2008)

Plainsman Stated:


> Three years and it's time to put those things to rest. I see some are so vindictive the call nodak nodakouthouse on other sites because they want to destroy. That's childish. Time to put hate to rest. The complaints you have should be in PM's if not meant as destructive. If you want to discuss further PM me.


Maybe you should take your own advice! I was only responding to you and your Swift rant and then your always supposed lack of memory! No hate! Good Day and God Bless.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

For all readers. When I tell someone to take comments to PM's I am very serious. Often I see things as spiteful. I don't tolerate those things and when people will not listen ----- well. Take me very serious when I say this is not the place to vent ancient gripes with people or to undermine nodakoutdoors. It's very simple click the PM under the persons name on their post. We can't turn into an internet version of the Hatfields and McCoys.



> Good Day and God Bless


Thank you LT, and seriously the same to you. May God bless you today, tomorrow, and always.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

And I read this thinking it was about the sage grouse................
Canuck


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Canuck said:


> And I read this thinking it was about the sage grouse................
> Canuck


It was, but as you noticed the anti-conservation crowd will derail any talk like that. Even extinction means little to some people. You will also notice they never talk fishing, hunting, rifles, archery, predators, or much of anything you would expect on a site like this. They lurk waiting to jump on anything that endangers even a penny of their income on public land. I often wonder how long one would last kicking up such a storm on one of their sites.

Some are bitter about three, four, and five year old debates. More often than not they resort to attacks on the messenger. I guess the theory is enough wrath and the messengers will be silenced.

I hope you enjoyed the first couple of posts.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

Sorry! (how Canadian, eh.) I should have kept my low brow comment to myself. It contributes nothing to your discussion.
If it means anything, I watched Burrowing Owls and Shortgrass prairie disappear as a kid. The shortgrass disappeared a bit at a time until you had to look really long and hard to even find something to propagate if you wanted to restore a chunk of it. None of the loss had anything to do with oil development. Burrowing owls are slowly (very slowly) making a comeback in the area where I grew up through habitat restoration, predator and disease control, and public education. Lots of other species have gotten mighty scarce in the meantime (salamanders, pronghorns, prairie chickens.....)

Canuck


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Canuck, no sweat. Like your example, we are seeing much the same thing here in ND. Back on the topic. The latest issue of North Dakota Outdoors, published by NDGF, has a full magazine layout of "Species of Concern". The list of mammals and birds is getting longer, not shorter, primarily due to the loss of grasslands. With the aquatic species the loss is being seen due to damming, channelization, and changing land practices in and around water bodies.

It is not surprising the Feds step in with a declaration of endangered species when the states are unwilling to address the situation. That could happen with sage-grouse across the west and other species across the state.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Canuck it's no problem. Like you I sure have noticed a decline from some burrowing owls to none in my home area. What is surprising is the number of Richardson ground squirrels that have taken a dive in population. When I was a kid II could go to the pasture and burn up a 500 pack of 22 long rifle in an afternoon. If I went to the neighbors who raised turkeys his turkey yard was nearly moving with gophers. The prairie disappeared, the pastures turned to corn fields, the burrowing owls and the ground squirrels without habitat have crashed in the area I hunted as a kid. Now the best time is winter when we can hunt coyotes.


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## Canuck (Nov 10, 2004)

Thanks Dick and Plainsman.

Plainsman, I too used to spend the day getting rid of "gophers". Was where I learned to shoot!
As far as the Burrowing owls disappearing from my back yard, I am pretty sure that just being a kid and hanging around but not bothering them still had something to do with them disappearing. Almost like it was inevitable.

Dick, I am making my first pheasant hunting trip back to NW corner of the state in five years.
It took me that long to get a new dog all ready after my last one passed away. That and the little place we used to stay was all booked up by oil people. Now it seems the oil boom has not quite reached the small area we always used to hunt. I sure am looking forward to it, sore knee and all. I am sure not expecting to see bird numbers like there were in 2009. Good to Chat with you again.

Canuck


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

Still pretty good numbers of burrowing owls in Morton and Sioux county, but I'm sure the trend must be down. One place where I've seen burrowing owls for years has been rock picked and now I see has a Roundup burn down presumably in preparation for breaking it up. At a dog town where there was always several pair of burrowing owls, the P dogs took a real dive last year and the owls were gone by mid summer. Dunno if the dog town was poisoned or had a plague breakout, but the owls sure are gone now. I saw one owl on a deserted mound this spring but now since.
I realize the landowner owns the land, pays taxes on it, and can do what he likes with it, especially with high commodity prices. IMO this is why measure one is so vital. Hopefully use some of that oil money to either buy or long term lease some of this land before it's gone.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> Hopefully use some of that oil money to either buy or long term lease some of this land before it's gone.


 :thumb:


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## shaug (Mar 28, 2011)

Buffalo Commons.


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## spentwings (Apr 25, 2007)

shaug said:


> Buffalo Commons.


 :rollin: that's one ridiculous comment/comparison/cranial infarct or whatever,,,


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

This would be *soybean commons*. Taxpayers get to pay the crop insurance. In return the topsoil just keeps washing away. Clean Water, Wildlife, and Parks Measure opponents like this situation.










Or we could do some conservation:










Luckily we all get to vote on what the face of North Dakota should look like.


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