# Biologists say sage grouse need more help



## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Feb 1, 4:21 PM EST

*Biologists say sage grouse need more help*

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) -- The best available science indicates that the current level of sage grouse protection implemented in oil and gas fields is not enough to maintain the bird's population, according to wildlife biologists in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah.

In a 10-page report to their supervisors, the state biologists agreed that research by Matthew Holloran, David Naugle and more than a dozen other published works is the best available science on which to base policy and resource management decisions regarding sage grouse and energy development.

The research has indicated that the current level of federal restrictions on the oil and gas industry is not enough to adequately protect the sage grouse.

Based on that research, the state biologists compiled recommendations on such things as well-pad densities, the pace of development and when development should occur. It is up to policymakers to decide whether to implement the recommendations.

Ben Deeble, sage grouse project coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, said the report confirms that more limitations should be applied to oil and gas development in order to prevent the sage grouse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

"What the (Bureau of Land Management) has been applying, in terms of common stipulations to protect sage grouse, are leading to their local extinction," Deeble said.

Deeble said that if federal land managers do not impose more stringent standards on the industry, energy development could push the bird into a listing.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill in Idaho ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to start another 12-month review of whether the grouse deserves federal protection, after finding that a 2005 decision against listing was inappropriately influenced by politics and not based on science.

But Casper geologist Gene George, a consultant to Yates Petroleum, insists that the industry's own research of information provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department seems to indicate that BLM's sage grouse stipulations are successful at protecting the bird.

"Regardless of what the published theories are, the Wyoming Game and Fish database doesn't support the conclusion that drilling in the Powder River Basin is causing the bird's demise," George said.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said his administration will study the report from the state biologists before deciding whether to back the recommendations.

"If all of those recommendations in there are adopted, and they'd have to be adopted by the (Bureau of Land Management), there would certainly be some impact to oil and gas development," Cleveland said.

He noted that those involved in the issue are cooperating on a number of efforts to conserve sage grouse habitat, including a massive mapping effort to pinpoint critical habitat and active leks.

The Bureau of Land Management is working on new management plans for millions of acres of federal land across the West, including large areas of sage grouse habitat. The management plans govern what land is open to oil and gas development.

Conservation groups say many of the proposed BLM management plans leave sage grouse areas at risk of being wiped out by oil and gas development.

Cindy Wertz, BLM spokeswoman in Wyoming, said she hadn't seen the report by the five-state biologists. But she said the agency's management plans are being designed to allow flexibility in dealing with development and its effect on sage grouse as new and better research becomes available.

"I think we're being fairly proactive in making sure that we include sage grouse in all of our analysis," Wertz said.


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