Wildlife biologists from five Western states have reached consensus on the latest science regarding sage grouse and energy development.

Despite much bristling from those in the oil and gas industry in recent months, the science does indicate that the current level of federal restrictions on the industry is not enough to adequately protect the iconic bird.

State biologists from Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah recently issued a 10-page report to their supervisors that includes recommendations to urge the Bureau of Land Management to base future stipulations on the science.

The science includes the research of biologists Matthew Holloran, David Naugle and more than a dozen other published works.

According to Naugle's studies in the Powder River Basin, the density and pace of coal-bed methane development is devastating sage grouse, "over and above those of habitat loss caused by wildfire, sagebrush control, or conversion of sagebrush to pasture or cropland. Moreover, the extent of CBM development explained lek (breeding ground) inactivity better than power lines, pre-existing roads, or West Nile virus mortality."

Ben Deeble, sage grouse project coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, said the report confirms that more limitations should be applied to oil and gas development in order to prevent the sage grouse from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

"What the (Bureau of Land Management) has been applying, in terms of common stipulations to protect sage grouse, are leading to their local extinction," Deeble said.

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.

Deeble said that if federal land managers do not impose more stringent standards on the industry based on the most recent science, energy development could push the bird into a listing.

"If this adjustment isn't made to energy development, it puts a whole lot of other stakeholders in the West at risk - ranchers, farmers, hunters," Deeble said.

Naugle's peer-reviewed work was published in the Journal of Wildlife Management and the Journal of Avian Diseases. But industry officials have tried to discredit Naugle's findings since they were first released last summer.

Casper geologist Gene George, a consultant to Yates Petroleum, insists that the industry's own research of information provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department seems to indicate that BLM's sage grouse stipulations are successful at protecting the bird.

"Regardless of what the published theories are, the Wyoming Game and Fish database doesn't support the conclusion that drilling in the Powder River Basin is causing the bird's demise," George said.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Terry Cleveland said his administration will study the report before deciding whether to back the recommendations. He noted that all stakeholders are cooperating on a number of efforts to conserve sage grouse habitat, including a massive mapping effort to pinpoint critical habitat and active leks.

"This is just one piece of it. Many efforts are going on," Cleveland said.

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