Don't blame all losses on energy activity, Game and Fish says
WHITNEY ROYSTER Star-Tribune environmental reporter | Posted: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:00 am
JACKSON - A 46 percent reduction in the Pinedale Anticline's mule deer population may be due to drought and harsh winters, Wyoming Game and Fish Department managers say.
There has been an overall decline in mule deer in the area since the winter of 2003-04 hit, said Scott Smith, wildlife management coordinator. Then, wildlife managers saw a 75 percent decline in fawns and a 25 percent decline in adults.
"What's happened is the last two winters, the Mesa has remained at this lower level. We're not seeing that typical rebound that you do following a bad winter," Smith said.
Although Game and Fish has not pinpointed the problem, Smith said the drought is dramatically hampering sagebrush growth.
"It's looking quite bleak for over-winter survival again this year," he said. And studies are showing mule deer are still returning to the Anticline for winter; there are just fewer animals doing so now because of the sharp decline several winters ago.
"There has not been a dramatic shift to better winter range," he said.
The Bureau of Land Management has also said more studies are needed to determine what is happening to mule deer on the Anticline, to determine if declines are caused by energy activity on the developing natural gas field.
The story is a little different in the Powder River Basin, another place where rapid energy development is taking place in the midst of key wildlife habitat.
There, David Naugle, a University of Montana researcher, is studying sage grouse, and he says tighter controls on industry development is needed to protect the birds.
Tom Christensen, sage grouse coordinator for Game and Fish, said the Powder River Basin birds are key because they are a link to core populations in Montana and marginal populations in North and South Dakota.
"If you were to write off the Powder River Basin, you would be creating isolated populations," he said. "So they have to be very careful of the idea of writing off one area and trying to maintain in another are."
Christensen said in the Powder River Basin, more sage grouse are being seen in a ring around intensely developed areas, showing some birds are leaving to less disturbed areas. Those areas, too, are eyed for development.
Christensen said there is a carrying capacity for birds in undisturbed areas, meaning an area can't support both existing birds and relocated birds. Sage grouse also require large tracts of undisturbed land, and have been considered for federal protection.
"It's becoming increasingly apparent that we, everybody, has to do more," Christensen said. "The status quo isn't enough. I think there are parties, industry and so forth, that are willing to do more. Industry has come to the table with, 'What can we do with money?' and so forth, but there aren't easy answers to those questions of what can we do."
Karen Brown of the Coalbed Natural Gas Alliance, an industry-sponsored organization, said the impacts to sage grouse may be from a variety of sources, including energy, ranching, new roads and development.
She also said more information is needed to determine where sage grouse are going, and whether they come back to breeding grounds after the initial phase of energy development - the most intensive phase - has ended.
Steven Hall, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management in Cheyenne, said further results from Naugle's ongoing study - which was funded by the BLM - will "shed light on the best way to manage sage grouse in the Powder River Basin."
Hall also said the agency is determining what, if any, changes to BLM management should occur, and that any conservation strategy would need to include private landowners, sportsmen, and local and state governments in the Powder River Basin because of the range of land ownership.
Hall said the question of how to protect wildlife in an area of rich natural gas reserves is a "continuing and important debate."