Missing traffic counter hampers efforts to protect sage-grouse

GUNNISON, CO—The U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management’s Gunnison Field Office cooperated this past spring in a study to monitor traffic use on roads and trails leading to Gunnison sage-grouse spring breeding grounds, or leks. Because sage-grouse are very sensitive to noise and other disturbances during the breeding season, MetroCount® traffic counters were installed on 10 roads in the Gunnison Basin to monitor use patterns on roads leading to leks.

USGS staff installed the traffic counters in early April, securing the metal box containing the sensor and datalogger to a nearby post using a heavy cable and lock. When the USGS staff returned to collect the counters two months later, the counter installed on 6-mile Lane, southeast of Gunnison, was missing.

“The tubes were still across the road, but a bolt cutter had been used to cut the lock, along with the tubes, from the datalogger,” BLM Wildlife Biologist Sandy Borthwick said. “The metal box was gone, and more important than the theft of expensive equipment worth several hundred dollars, all the traffic data collected for that area during the past two months was lost.” The datalogger will be of no use to whoever stole it and will not be available for use by the USGS in subsequent years.

If people are using roads and trails near leks, they could be affecting sage-grouse breeding success. Collecting this data is imperative to the BLM and its cooperators in protecting and enhancing Gunnison Sage-grouse habitat. The counters consist of two black tubes placed across the road and parallel to each other. These plug into in a metal box that contains an air sensor and datalogger which collects and stores the data. The counters collect data on date and time a vehicle passes, direction of travel, and relative size of a vehicle, allowing a motorized vehicle to be differentiated from a bicycle. This data can be used to help manage road and trail use during the critical sage-grouse breeding season.

If you have any information regarding this stolen piece of equipment, please call Sandy Borthwick at 970-642-4450. The unit can also be returned, no questions asked, to the BLM/Forest Service Office at 216 N. Colorado in Gunnison.

-BLM-

Editor’s Note: Photo of traffic counter available upon request.