{"id":1309991,"date":"2023-11-02T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=621233"},"modified":"2023-11-02T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:30:00","slug":"oil-development-tees-up-fresh-fight-over-sage-grouse-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/02\/oil-development-tees-up-fresh-fight-over-sage-grouse-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil development tees up fresh fight over sage grouse protections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
To combat the biodiversity crisis, the Sierra Club supports establishing a national goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. land, and 30 percent of U.S. ocean areas by 2030. Known as the 30×30 Agenda, this campaign has the potential to not only benefit wildlife, but improve outdoor equity and expand representation of historically marginalized groups on public lands. This three-part series explores the potential implications of such measures from locations across the country.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The sage grouse mating ritual is like no other. A male bird pops its chest out to reveal two yellow sacs filled with air. As they bounce, the sacs generate a noise like a rubber ball on pavement. It\u2019s often referred to as the \u2018dance\u2019 of the sage grouse, and the bird with the best choreography wins a mate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the sage grouse and its iconic dance have long been under attack. Settlers who colonized land in the west in the 1800s introduced invasive species that destroy habitat and food sources the bird needs. More recently, human activity like oil and gas leasing, improper livestock grazing, and other development has reduced its habitat further. Once found in 13 states, the bird is now extinct in half of its historic range. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the sage grouse population now relies on public lands\u2014but not all public lands are protected equally. Millions of acres are in fact used by extractive industries, like drilling for oil. Private development has significantly impacted the integrity of what\u2019s often referred to as the \u2018sagebrush sea.\u2019 Experts say that a renewed focus on the protection and conservation of public lands can safeguard the vast and complex ecosystem and its many native species, like the sage grouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’re facing a crisis moment for sage grouse, where federal agencies, states, private landowners [and] public users all need to pitch in to conserve sagebrush habitat\u2014or we could end up losing this species across large areas of its range,\u201d says Mark Salvo, program director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sage grouse require vast amounts of uninterrupted land to mate, raise fledglings, and mature. Each new oil and gas lease is a threat. Human activity at well sites and the vehicle traffic along roads to get there are \u201csubstantial enough to drive sage grouse away \u2026 so 100% of the [surrounding] habitat is lost,\u201d says Eric Molvar, the executive director of Western Watersheds Project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This habitat fragmentation leads the birds to search for new undisrupted space, interrupting their tradition of returning to the same areas to mate each year\u2014causing population numbers to spiral downward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several ways the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages much of the country\u2019s sagebrush habitat, could protect the sage grouse. Most importantly, the agency could permanently conserve public lands. They could also work with Native Tribes to establish land stewardship partnerships based on Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge. In 2018, a federal court found<\/a> that Endangered Species Act protections had been wrongfully denied to the bird, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service was required to re-evaluate the sage grouses\u2019 status. The bird was subsequently proposed for protection, but the Trump administration blocked the proposal<\/a> in March of 2020. These protections, including designation of critical habitat, are needed to keep the grouse from a continued slide into extinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n