The Petroleum Association of Wyoming has formed a "sage grouse management team" to help coordinate efforts to keep the bird from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Members of PAW's team reiterated the industry's assertion that more detailed mapping of sagebrush habitat, better consolidation of oil and gas facilities and enhanced reclamation strategies will eventually help justify a decision not to protect the bird.

"No one needs to cut back, because we're making it so there's less of an impact," said EnCana spokesman Paul Ulrich, who serves as committee chairman of PAW's sage grouse management team.

The prospect of sage grouse listing was revived recently by U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill in Idaho. He 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.

PAW called a press conference on Wednesday in Casper to introduce its new sage grouse team and its strategy to preserve and enhance sage grouse habitat. Ulrich said the strategy is to focus on finding out where key habitat areas are in Wyoming so the industry can avoid the areas or apply special management techniques to minimize disturbance.

Ulrich noted that within the sage grouse's 11-state sagebrush biome, Wyoming has some of the strongest populations and habitat areas.

Yet federal land managers have increased sage grouse protection in Wyoming this year, particularly in the Powder River Basin, where a University of Montana study determined that coal-bed methane drilling activity has a devastating effect on the bird.

Bureau of Land Management Buffalo field office manager Chris Hanson said his office "shelved" four plans of development totaling 78 wells due to the new scientific data.

So far, the industry has been able to successfully avoid the three identified high-value habitat areas in proximity to the four shelved projects. Hanson said his agency expects it will continue its annual permitting level of 3,000 new wells per year in the basin.

"We need to look at new approaches on how to develop in those habitats," Hanson said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Skepticism remains about whether the industry's more sage grouse-friendly development strategies can improve the bird's habitat in Wyoming and at the same time preserve the industry's current pace of development.

Erik Molvar, executive director of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, suggested that the types of industrial minimization strategies that the industry is focused on don't go far enough for the sage grouse.

"The science tells us what we need to know to modify oil and gas projects to prevent significant impacts," Molvar said. "But there aren't any oil and gas companies implementing the recommendations of the researchers as yet."

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.