“An unprecedented” public-private effort to preserve habitat for the greater sage-grouse “has significantly reduced threats … across 90 percent of the species’ breeding habitat” and obviated any need to protect the fowl under the Endangered Species Act, said the Interior Department. A “status review” concluded that the bird is relatively abundant throughout its 173-million-acre range across 11 states in the West, and is not at risk of extinction. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the decision in Colorado.
Major threats to the ground-dwelling bird are ranching, farming, urban sprawl and energy development, along with loss of sagebrush to cheatgrass, an invasive species, and encroachment by conifers. Other animals, such as elk, mule deer and golden eagles thrive on healthy expanses of sagebrush. Besides activity by state and federal agencies to enhance sage-grouse habitat, ranchers committed millions of acres to its preservation.
The population of the sage-grouse has dropped by an estimated 90 percent since the 19th century, Jewell said in a videotaped announcement. “The deteriorating health of the bird has sparked the largest land conservation effort in U.S. history,” said Jewell. “A healthy sagebrush landscape also supports a healthy Western economy – for ranching, outdoor recreation and energy that powers our nation.”
There are an estimated 200,000-500,000 of the birds. “Tuesday’s finding reverses a 2010 determination that the sage-grouse were in precipitous decline,” said the Associated Press.