The Sage Grouse Crisis has Reached Critical Mass

[Ben Lamb]

Really well done article about sage Grouse, and what's happening to those big expanses of public land we all love:

The Sage Grouse Crisis has Reached Critical Mass

Sage grouse numbers are worse than we thought; the crisis is symbolic of the American political divide and is on the way to catastrophe.

projectupland.com

 

[Nameless Range]

That is a great article.

From the article: "a landowner can put in years of work to maintain their property, and one wildfire could set them back almost entirely." There is a long history of man's inability to win against fire and/or invasive grasses in the long run. This makes the task of conserving SG Habitat really daunting.

Also, I can't remember the exact percentage, but something like 70% of Core Habitat in MT is on private land. This leads me to believe that anything other than a collaborative approach,for example listing and litigation, will just lead to a faster demise.

Tough road for the sage grouse, and a lot of smart people working on it.

 

[Ben Lamb]

That is a great article.

From the article: "a landowner can put in years of work to maintain their property, and one wildfire could set them back almost entirely." There is a long history of man's inability to win against fire and/or invasive grasses in the long run. This makes the task of conserving SG Habitat really daunting.

Also, I can't remember the exact percentage, but something like 70% of Core Habitat in MT is on private land. This leads me to believe that anything other than a collaborative approach,for example listing and litigation, will just lead to a faster demise.

Tough road for the sage grouse, and a lot of smart people working on it.

MT did a good job in setting up their program, but it's fallible, like anything. The big miss in MT is that funding isn't directed towards restoration so much as habitat conservation through easements. Both are vital in ensuring better outcomes.

The one unifying factor throughout GSG range is battling invasive annual grasses & noxious weeds. Everyone is impacted by that, and yet budgets remain flat or declining when it comes to allocating cash to fight it.

 

[rwc101]

Meanwhile, at least 874 hens shot last year in Wyoming.

After hunters kill 874 sage grouse hens, Wyo’s hunt questioned - WyoFile

Last year’s data requires justification of hunting, grouse team-member says. Others contend the dwindling population can support a regulated season.

www.wyofile.com

 

[Ben Lamb]

Meanwhile, at least 874 hens shot last year in Wyoming.

After hunters kill 874 sage grouse hens, Wyo’s hunt questioned - WyoFile

Last year’s data requires justification of hunting, grouse team-member says. Others contend the dwindling population can support a regulated season.

www.wyofile.com

I read that earlier today. Brian is a great advocate for the bird & for public lands. If he's raising the issue, it would merit some exploration.

 

[OntarioHunter]

It won't bother me if they close the season on sage grouse. They taste like crap and don't make an attractive mount so what's the point in shooting them? Right now it's all about filling some grand slam on uplands before the species is listed. Shooting for the sake of shooting. Lots of other edible birds in Montana to hunt and such a variety I can switch from species to species year to year depending on how they're doing. For example, I haven't shot a Hun for several years. Just not finding enough of them. I held off on sharpies for a while but took quite a few last year. They were everywhere! Pheasants are different because roosters can be identified. They can be hunted even in lean years without affecting conservation very much.

 

[CPAjeff]

Both are great articles!

Quoting from one of the articles:

“Private landowners, they’re in an interesting conundrum,” Ahearn added. “If there’s anything I’ve learned about private landowners in the West, it’s many of them care very deeply about the lands they inhabit and own. They are struggling to also make a living in these rural places. The question for one of the episodes focused on, ‘Can we have cows and sage grouse?’ And the resounding answer was, ‘Yes,’ however when the rubber hits the road and it comes to making some sacrifices in terms of where you graze your cows and when you graze your cows, that becomes a little more complicated. There are certain sticking points where, even with the best intentions, certain sacrifices are going to be required of private landowners, and the question I have and I think many others have is, are we going to be up for making those sacrifices and at what cost? Is it a threat to the way of life to have sage grouse around in the future?"

Earlier on in my professional career, I had the wonderful opportunity to work for a large ranching enterprise which consisted of hundreds of thousands of acres of rangeland in Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. In a collaborative effort with the local university, graduate students caught sage grouse and equipped each bird with a GPS tracker. One of the graduate students invited the boring accountant - me - to help them one night. By far, it was one of the coolest experiences I've been able to have in the name of conservation. The purpose of the study was to better understand how the ranch's grazing rotation impacted the nesting sage grouse. While the grazing rotation had some impact on nests, the biggest culprits of nest destruction came from the ravens.

I understand my example is just a dot on the radar of the entire sample size, but this issue with diminishing sage grouse is such a multi-faceted quandary. In my humble opinion, sage grouse are an iconic species of the American West and worth saving.



Impact of ravens of sage grouse: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/...vens-affect-sage-grouse-nest-success#stream/0

 

[CPAjeff]

For those of you who are grazing experts . . .

How does cattle grazing differ from bison grazing? I've read stories of the millions of bison and the millions of sage grouse which used to inhabit the intermountain west simultaneously. I'm not a grazing expert, but I'm not sure I understand how millions of bison weren't more destructive to sage grouse nests and nesting conditions than a few hundred thousand head of cattle.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

MT did a good job in setting up their program, but it's fallible, like anything. The big miss in MT is that funding isn't directed towards restoration so much as habitat conservation through easements. Both are vital in ensuring better outcomes.

The one unifying factor throughout GSG range is battling invasive annual grasses & noxious weeds. Everyone is impacted by that, and yet budgets remain flat or declining when it comes to allocating cash to fight it.

With the record high purchase of firearms, and the 11% excise tax, there should be more funding via Pittman Roberston funds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is distributing $1 billion to state wildlife agencies through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR). Generated by the hunting and angling industry, these funds support regional conservation projects across the country. The 2021 WSFR apportionment is $121 million higher than the 2020 apportionment due to increases in firearm, fishing equipment and motorboat fuel revenues.

 

[kwyeewyk]

For those of you who are grazing experts . . .

How does cattle grazing differ from bison grazing? I've read stories of the millions of bison and the millions of sage grouse which used to inhabit the intermountain west simultaneously. I'm not a grazing expert, but I'm not sure I understand how millions of bison weren't more destructive to sage grouse nests and nesting conditions than a few hundred thousand head of cattle.

The majority of those bison grazed the prairies that weren't sage-grouse habitat as sage-grouse are dependent on sagebrush habitat. Cattle are (or were) stocked higher than historic bison populations would have been in a lot of areas that weren't core bison habitat. Also habitat loss and fragmentation combine with grazing and many other factors that affect habitat.

 

[Hydrophilic]

Great article, thanks for sharing.

"This report highlighted five reasons sage grouse are in a steeper decline: habitat conversion to cropland, energy development and mining, conifer intrusion, climate change, and cheatgrass fueling more and hotter fires."

We need to learn to live with the land if we value the species we currently have. That involves education, sacrifice, patience, and money.
If we decide we value the species we currently have, invasive weeds will become one of hottest topics in environmental / conservation circles over the next couple decades. I would like to think it's already a hot topic, I just don't see it being taken seriously yet.

I also like how the article mentioned involving local communities is important to the process.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

For those of you who are grazing experts . . .

How does cattle grazing differ from bison grazing? I've read stories of the millions of bison and the millions of sage grouse which used to inhabit the intermountain west simultaneously. I'm not a grazing expert, but I'm not sure I understand how millions of bison weren't more destructive to sage grouse nests and nesting conditions than a few hundred thousand head of cattle.

Generally agree with above yes, there is disagreement about numbers and distribution of bison in the sagebrush steppe. I found the bison skull in my avatar at 10,000', a loooong way from productive prairie. Migratory mountain dweller, an older bull that went uphill to die, or holdout/escapee from hunting and expansion down below?
They can blow out a riparian area as well as anything, but it's all a matter of scale and each specific circumstance. There has been some interesting work looking at c3 (cool season) and c4 (warm season) grasses in teeth from old skulls. I'm far from a natural historian, but it in terms of grazing response, capacity, and life history strategy of grazers, the mixed grass and tall grass ecosystems are different enough, let alone the sagebrush steppe.

 

[88man]

Ha Ha follow the science! Nope you won't hear that on this one as the sage grouse is just a pawn and THEY have made a decision to use the bird and let them disappear if needed. WEST NILE VIRUS!!!!!!!!! arrived in 1999 some local populations crashed as much as 25% a year in the early 2000'S!! Yes the birds have lost habitat in some places but what about the areas they didn't lose habitat. Oh let us jump to climate change as option two on the decline>. The major cause of the decline is west nile virus and predators in most areas!!! Now the they on this board are gonna search and try and find local data " climate change or Oil and gas & subdivisions. If you really care about the birds> drop your politics and work on the major issue West Nile. How are the birds doing where water sources have a treatment plan to kill the mosquitos?? Might be hard to find that research as the researchers are part of the THEY many times.

 

[Ben Lamb]

With the record high purchase of firearms, and the 11% excise tax, there should be more funding via Pittman Roberston funds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is distributing $1 billion to state wildlife agencies through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR). Generated by the hunting and angling industry, these funds support regional conservation projects across the country. The 2021 WSFR apportionment is $121 million higher than the 2020 apportionment due to increases in firearm, fishing equipment and motorboat fuel revenues.

That's a part of the puzzle, as is the budgeting process for USFWS, USFS, DOI, BLM, etc. If those agencies don't have the budgets to do this work, then all of the project money will simply sit, or be allocated elsewhere. States as well need to invest in habitat restoration (CO, UT & WY are leaders on this at the state level). Some good work has been done over the last 7 years to dig into this at the federal level, but it's often been set aside for other priorities.

 

[Hydrophilic]

Ha Ha follow the science! Nope you won't hear that on this one as the sage grouse is just a pawn and THEY have made a decision to use the bird and let them disappear if needed. WEST NILE VIRUS!!!!!!!!! arrived in 1999 some local populations crashed as much as 25% a year in the early 2000'S!! Yes the birds have lost habitat in some places but what about the areas they didn't lose habitat. Oh let us jump to climate change as option two on the decline>. The major cause of the decline is west nile virus and predators in most areas!!! Now the they on this board are gonna search and try and find local data " climate change or Oil and gas & subdivisions. If you really care about the birds> drop your politics and work on the major issue West Nile. How are the birds doing where water sources have a treatment plan to kill the mosquitos?? Might be hard to find that research as the researchers are part of the THEY many times.

Can you post some sources

 

[Ben Lamb]

Generally agree with above yes, there is disagreement about numbers and distribution of bison in the sagebrush steppe. I found the bison skull in my avatar at 10,000', a loooong way from productive prairie. Migratory mountain dweller, an older bull that went uphill to die, or holdout/escapee from hunting and expansion down below?
They can blow out a riparian area as well as anything, but it's all a matter of scale and each specific circumstance. There has been some interesting work looking at c3 (cool season) and c4 (warm season) grasses in teeth from old skulls. I'm far from a natural historian, but it in terms of grazing response, capacity, and life history strategy of grazers, the mixed grass and tall grass ecosystems are different enough, let alone the sagebrush steppe.

My understanding is that bison grazing in the past was not concentrated and that led to a kind of "rest-rotation" based on what got chewed up in the path of nomadic ungulate herds that numbered in the tens of thousands at various points. Room was the key for sustaining massive herds, and the prairie ecology adapted from that.

Bison go where they want if they are not contained either through fencing or given enough space to live their lives.

As far as grazing livestock & GSG, there's some really compelling work out that shows grazing is an effective tool for managing forage and helping ensure GSG have the space they need to thrive. But they key is managing locally for conditions on the ground, rather than a blanket application of a regulation like the 2015 plans originally had (7" stubble height can be a challenge in a lot of western grazing allotments).

 

[MTLabrador]

My understanding is that bison grazing in the past was not concentrated and that led to a kind of "rest-rotation" based on what got chewed up in the path of nomadic ungulate herds that numbered in the tens of thousands at various points. Room was the key for sustaining massive herds, and the prairie ecology adapted from that.

Bison go where they want if they are not contained either through fencing or given enough space to live their lives.

As far as grazing livestock & GSG, there's some really compelling work out that shows grazing is an effective tool for managing forage and helping ensure GSG have the space they need to thrive. But they key is managing locally for conditions on the ground, rather than a blanket application of a regulation like the 2015 plans originally had (7" stubble height can be a challenge in a lot of western grazing allotments).

I used to measure a hell of a lot of sagebrush and get a lot of trucks stuck in the mud for this project.

JWM study: Grazing shows little effect on grouse nesting - The Wildlife Society

As habitat loss and fragmentation continue to threaten the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a study in Montana found livestock grazing seems to have little impact on the bird’s nest...

wildlife.org

 

[1_pointer]

Both are great articles!

Quoting from one of the articles:

“Private landowners, they’re in an interesting conundrum,” Ahearn added. “If there’s anything I’ve learned about private landowners in the West, it’s many of them care very deeply about the lands they inhabit and own. They are struggling to also make a living in these rural places. The question for one of the episodes focused on, ‘Can we have cows and sage grouse?’ And the resounding answer was, ‘Yes,’ however when the rubber hits the road and it comes to making some sacrifices in terms of where you graze your cows and when you graze your cows, that becomes a little more complicated. There are certain sticking points where, even with the best intentions, certain sacrifices are going to be required of private landowners, and the question I have and I think many others have is, are we going to be up for making those sacrifices and at what cost? Is it a threat to the way of life to have sage grouse around in the future?"

Earlier on in my professional career, I had the wonderful opportunity to work for a large ranching enterprise which consisted of hundreds of thousands of acres of rangeland in Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. In a collaborative effort with the local university, graduate students caught sage grouse and equipped each bird with a GPS tracker. One of the graduate students invited the boring accountant - me - to help them one night. By far, it was one of the coolest experiences I've been able to have in the name of conservation. The purpose of the study was to better understand how the ranch's grazing rotation impacted the nesting sage grouse. While the grazing rotation had some impact on nests, the biggest culprits of nest destruction came from the ravens.

I understand my example is just a dot on the radar of the entire sample size, but this issue with diminishing sage grouse is such a multi-faceted quandary. In my humble opinion, sage grouse are an iconic species of the American West and worth saving.

View attachment 182412

Impact of ravens of sage grouse: https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/...vens-affect-sage-grouse-nest-success#stream/0

I'd not be surprised if I didn't collect my MS thesis (sagebrush browsing study) data on the same ranch you were catching sage grouse!!

 

[1_pointer]

My understanding is that bison grazing in the past was not concentrated and that led to a kind of "rest-rotation" based on what got chewed up in the path of nomadic ungulate herds that numbered in the tens of thousands at various points. Room was the key for sustaining massive herds, and the prairie ecology adapted from that.

Bison go where they want if they are not contained either through fencing or given enough space to live their lives.

As far as grazing livestock & GSG, there's some really compelling work out that shows grazing is an effective tool for managing forage and helping ensure GSG have the space they need to thrive. But they key is managing locally for conditions on the ground, rather than a blanket application of a regulation like the 2015 plans originally had (7" stubble height can be a challenge in a lot of western grazing allotments).

I'll leave the bison portion of that post alone...

Grazing and GSG has been studied a whole lot. Much of that work shows that "good" grazing is not bad for GSG. The 2015 plans had a lot of holes. Some of the blanket statements regarding vegetation parameters were laughable. Sagebrush canopy cover was my favorite. I know one biologist who went home for the day once pictures with corresponding data showed what the numbers in the plan were describing! He didn't realize the guidelines called for a whole lot of sagebrush killing where he worked.

"But they key is managing locally for conditions on the ground, rather than a blanket application of a regulation"
This cannot be stated often or loud enough. What needed to be done where I used to work is not what needs to me done on the HiLine. IMO/E the knowledge and willingness is there to start trying to fix the issues, but red tape (w/ associated litigation) and money often get in the way.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I'll leave the bison portion of that post alone...

Grazing and GSG has been studied a whole lot. Much of that work shows that "good" grazing is not bad for GSG. The 2015 plans had a lot of holes. Some of the blanket statements regarding vegetation parameters were laughable. Sagebrush canopy cover was my favorite. I know one biologist who went home for the day once pictures with corresponding data showed what the numbers in the plan were describing! He didn't realize the guidelines called for a whole lot of sagebrush killing where he worked.

"But they key is managing locally for conditions on the ground, rather than a blanket application of a regulation"
This cannot be stated often or loud enough. What needed to be done where I used to work is not what needs to me done on the HiLine. IMO/E the knowledge and willingness is there to start trying to fix the issues, but red tape (w/ associated litigation) and money often get in the way.

No plan is perfect, to be sure.

I wonder is having personnel that move around a lot complicates this all more. If every Federal Land Agency employee has to spend so much time building relationships rather than working on issues, it can't be helpful. I've heard this over and over relative to the FS, but not so sure if it happens in the BLM or NRCS, etc.