Southeastern Oregon is filled with the kind of wide open rangeland where an iconic bird is struggling to survive: the greater sage grouse. Eleven states in the West are working out strategies for the survival of the sage grouse. In Oregon’s Harney County ranchers are eager for solutions that will avoid more government restrictions.
The plight of greater sage grouse is now at the top of mind for ranchers, conservationists, and politicians across the West.
So much so that one ranch in southeastern Oregon has put a wildlife biologist on its payroll.
Andrew Shields roams the Roaring Springs Ranch every day. He’s monitoring the progress of the imperiled bird.
Shields: “On a normal day, I see more wildlife species than people, and I don’t think many folks can say that — wildlife biologist or not.”
He turns his dusty pickup truck down a bumpy dirt road. Cows stare as he slowly drives by. Shields stops his truck next to a green wetland. It’s fed by the Roaring Springs Creek, which helps grow more protein-filled vegetation.
Shields has followed one radio-collared female sage grouse here. The ranch has nine breeding grounds, known as leks.
Shields: “The first or second week of July she came back to this spot. This is where we caught her last fall. So she’s moving 30 miles from her lekking area to her summering area to find the green. Everywhere else in the valley is dry now.”
It’s not ideal when sage grouse have to fly such distances for food.
The radio and GPS collars have helped Shields figure out what parts of the ranch are providing good habitat for roughly 800 sage grouse. That helps him know how to help the bird survive --- and maintain the ranch’s bottom line. They’ve cut down juniper trees, seeded bunch grass, used controlled burns to improve habitat. This is the kind of conservation work that ranchers are voluntarily doing.
Shields: “We sure are willing to work with folks on coming up with solutions. We feel like from the ground up is the way that things should be done.”
For most ranchers and others involved in the effort, the ultimate goal is to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list. To avoid a repeat of the economic hardships and court battles that Northwest lumber towns faced after northern spotted owl was added to the list.
To do that, 11 western states must convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they’ve taken enough actions to stop the sage grouse’s precipitous decline.
At a recent meeting in Burns, Oregon, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife presented a new rule to guide large-scale development in the most important sage grouse habitat areas -- development like mining and wind farms.
The state says these new rules will provide the certainty that federal regulators are looking for when it comes to protecting sage grouse from changes to their most important habitat areas.
Tensions ran high at the meeting.
“All the sudden we got all these different rules. Rules, rules, rules.”
Over the past few years, ranchers all across Harney County agreed to conserve land for sage grouse. In exchange, the government would not hit them later with new restrictions, should the sage grouse be placed on the list of threatened or endangered species.
These agreements are called Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances, or CCAAs. And they’re a big reason ranchers aren’t happy with Oregon’s new rules.
Steve Grasty is the Harney County judge.
Grasty: “Folks are confused. They’re angry. I don’t blame them. I think part of the solution that the state could easily do is say: if your land is being managed under a CCAA that you are exempt from this rule.”
Brett Brownscombe is the deputy director with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He told ranchers their operations are unlikely to be affected by the new rules. But he understood why they were so anxious.
Brownscombe: “This is one of those things where: democracy, when it happens, is often a spicy meal. I think you all have very legitimate reasons to feel like there’s a lot at stake in the future here.”
Once the states turn in their plans, it’s going to be up to the federal government to decide if they’ve done enough to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it will make a listing decision Sept. 30.
