DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 12:00 am
Landowners and wildlife conservationists gave up large swaths of habitat they considered important to sage grouse, particularly in the Powder River Basin.
Energy developers, some reluctantly, agreed to a stipulation that they must demonstrate activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat in "core areas."
Most all stakeholders agree that the state's plan to protect sage grouse is a true, workable compromise.
"We wanted to come up with a solution that protected an adequate number of sage grouse without shutting down the state development-wise. There was a lot of good give and take, and overall we came up with a core area strategy. It's a solid concept," said Mark Winland of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, who served on the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday issued an executive order outlining the state's plan to protect sage grouse and sage grouse habitat in Wyoming. It's the culmination of a multi-stakeholder effort that began in June 2007 when the governor held a summit in Casper regarding sage grouse, which some groups want to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The governor's order consists of 12 stipulations and a map of "core" areas where the stipulations could be implemented, including a mandate for developers to demonstrate their proposed activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat.
Winland said some sage grouse populations and some good sage grouse habitat in the Powder River Basin was left out of the state's "core areas" map because there was already extensive coal-bed methane development and leasing.
"I still feel good that we're not risking expiration of populations in the Powder River Basin at all," Winland added.
Others say they are uneasy about the state's proclaimed "non-regulatory approach" for managing sage grouse under the new plan. Clait Braun, Colorado Division of Wildlife Sage Grouse research director, noted that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is under tremendous pressure to facilitate energy development but is under no obligation to stick to the state's plan.
"The proposed recommendations are a prescription for further fragmenting and isolating populations of sage grouse in Wyoming," Braun said in a prepared statement on Friday. "What they should focus on is maintaining large blocks of habitat with suitable corridors for (grouse) movement. Once maps of 'populations' are distributed, there will be a constant nibbling of the edges until the habitat is no longer viable to support sage grouse."
Wyoming BLM officials have said they are committed to working with the state and aligning its land management efforts with the state's sage grouse plan. However, the agency still must facilitate sage grouse conservation, energy development and a multitude of other land uses, said spokeswoman Teresa Howes.
"This is very workable," said Paul Ullrich, community liaison for natural gas developer EnCana.
Ullrich served on the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team. He said the plan raises the bar for industry to prove whether it can develop energy in prime sage grouse habitat with no loss of the species or its habitat.
Advancing technologies in drilling, and advancing techniques in habitat restoration should help industry meet the stipulation, Ullrich said.
The sage grouse's estimated 160 million acres of existing sagebrush habitat across 11 states is half of the bird's historic range. Peer-reviewed studies released last year by University of Montana professor Dave Naugle, and other researchers, outlined a grave situation for sage grouse in the Powder River Basin.
Among the findings; From 2000-2005, sage-grouse populations with coal-bed methane gas activity declined by 86 percent, whereas populations outside of coal-bed methane development areas declined by 35 percent.
Ralph Rogers, executive director of the North American Grouse Partnership, said the plan among state and federal regulators to continue a kind of "watch as you go" approach is cause for concern.
"It's like the definition of insanity; doing the same thing and expecting different outcomes," Rogers said.
The North American Grouse Partnership joined the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in a petition to the Department of Interior, asking that it base decisions regarding sage grouse on scientific evidence. That, according to Rogers, might push the BLM toward more preventative approaches to balancing energy development with sage grouse conservation.
Rogers said it's a very positive step for Wyoming to put forth a plan to protect sage grouse, and said the Cowboy State may be ahead of other states in the region on the issue.
"This is a regional problem, and we know that what we've been doing isn't working," said Rogers.
Winland said another positive to come from the state's sage grouse plan is that for the first time revenue-generation will not trump sage grouse conservation on state school land sections.
"It's not retroactive, but state lands are going to start having some good sage grouse protections that they didn't have before," Winland said.
Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.