DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter | Posted: Friday, February 1, 2008 12:00 am
The best available science indicates that the current level of sage grouse protection implemented in oil and gas development is not enough to maintain the bird's population, according to wildlife biologists.
This week the Casper Star-Tribune obtained a copy of a 10-page report detailing consensus reached by wildlife biologists from five Western states regarding the science on sage grouse and energy development.
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.
State wildlife agency biologists from Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah met with several researchers in January to review studies regarding sage grouse and energy development. Their consensus includes findings from research biologists Holloran and Naugle which has indicated sage grouse are severely affected by oil and gas development, even with current federal timing restrictions and surface occupancy stipulations.
Late 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.
Reached for comment Thursday, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said his administration will study the report 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.