{"id":116556,"date":"2014-11-12T21:57:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T04:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-protect-grouse\/"},"modified":"2014-11-12T21:57:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T04:57:04","slug":"feds-protect-grouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-protect-grouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds protect grouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"During
During the March to May mating season, Gunnison Sage Grouse males display their filoplumes (topknot), bulging air sacs, white breasts and spiky tail feathers. Their exotic attire and spectacular display draws the attention of sage grouse hens.<\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that the Gunnison Sage Grouse does require the protection of the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper immediately renewed the state\u2019s threat to sue to block the measures. He said the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignores 20 years of work by state and local officials to protect the bird.<\/p>\n

The extent of restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other activities was not immediately known. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe said the area designated as critical habitat does not appear to have significant potential for drilling. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t expect that to be a major source of conflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Energy companies could be required to consolidate drilling operations on fewer sites and use directional drilling to avoid disturbing critical habitat, he said.<\/p>\n

The ground-dwelling bird has a population of less than 5,000. It will be listed as a threatened species under the Act, rather than the more stringent endangered status, said Theo Stein, a spokesman for the USFWS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core population in Gunnison County is strong, but the satellite populations in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah are not in good shape,\u201d Stein said. \u201cWe had to make a decision on the entire species.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is estimated that there are just 100 birds in the Dove Creek and Monticello, Utah region. San Miguel County has an estimated 206 birds. Meanwhile, Gunnison county holds onto an estimated 3,978 birds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service feels that right now all of our eggs are in one basket with the stabilized Gunnison County population,\u201d Stein said. \u201cWe want to work with communities and land agencies give the satellite populations a better chance to expand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The threatened designation and critical habitat map totalling 1.4 million acres will be published in the coming days in the Federal Register.<\/p>\n

A previous map showed 348,353 acres proposed for critical habitat in Dolores, San Miguel, and Gunnison counties.<\/p>\n

After pressure from Colorado, the total critical habitat acreage was reduced by 275,000 acres, but which areas were eliminated were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

Dolores County commissioner Julie Kibel was disappointed at the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked so hard to avoid a listing,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess losing a little with the threatened status rather than losing a lot with the endangered status is something of a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Dolores and other counties working to prevent the listing may try a legal challenge to stop it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned what effect it will have on private landowners and our oil and gas industry,\u201d Kibel said. \u201cWe did a lot in our land management plans to avoid harming the bird\u2019s habitat and that was not considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein said the threatened listing gives landowners and managers more flexibility in management practices to protect the bird.<\/p>\n

Specifically the threatened category allows for a 4D rule provision, Stein explained, which give blanket exemptions for so-called \u201ctakes\u201d of the bird under the ESA.<\/p>\n

A \u201ctaking\u201d is a permit negotiated between the landowner and USFW biologists for inadvertent habitat disturbance or killing of the bird due to farming, or some other activity.<\/p>\n

The specifics of the 4 D rule will be worked out in 2015, and will include public meetings and comment.<\/p>\n

The listing decision will have no impact upon many of the area\u2019s agricultural landowners. Those who previously entered into Candidate Conservation Agreements need only to continue to abide by those agreements to fully comply with the ESA.<\/p>\n

Other landowners who participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service programs including the \u2018Sage-Grouse Initiative, \u2018Working Lands for Wildlife\u2019 and the \u2018Conservation Reserve Program,\u2019 can continue to implement the practices covered by those programs with the knowledge that they will be consistent with the ESA.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSDA\u2019s partnerships with farmers and ranchers in voluntary efforts such as the \u2018Sage Grouse Initiative\u2019 and the \u2018Conservation Reserve Program\u2019 are helping to support both sound wildlife habitat management and agricultural production,\u201d said Jason Weller, Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief. \u201cBy harnessing innovative approaches included in today\u2019s announcement, USDA is committed to working with producers to voluntarily plan and deliver conservation activities that will help them be productive and give them certainty that they are in compliance with the ESA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper and local officials in Colorado sought to delay the Gunnison grouse decision, saying voluntary steps could help save the bird.<\/p>\n

Ashe said he had asked WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group that filed suit to force a decision, for a delay, but the group declined.<\/p>\n

After Ashe\u2019s announcement, WildEarth Guardians said threatened status was inadequate and the bird should have been granted more stringent endangered status.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t gamble on the survival of this bird with the voluntary or scientifically inadequate protections that could be allowed under a \u2018threatened species\u2019 designation,\u201d said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the group.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hickenlooper renews threat to block decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116556"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}