Led by an Eagle Scout candidate, a Boy Scout troop recently helped BLM to complete a public viewing area for a major sage grouse lek on BLM public lands 20 miles east of Kemmerer, Wyoming. (A lek — or strutting ground — is an area where sage grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, gather in the spring for courtship displays and mating.) Texaco Exploration and Production, Inc., and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department were major contributing partners in the effort.

Sage grouse populations have been declining in the West, probably because of a combination of factors such as sagebrush habitat alteration/fragmentation, predators, and drought. The lesser sage grouse, the species at this lek, is not categorized as threatened or endangered, but rather as a species of concern. Leks are highly important areas with respect to the health of the species as a whole.

At leks, males fight with one another and display in order to attract the most females for mating. The display is visual as well as noisy: the males fan their tail feathers, and inflate their air sacs, which they smack together to make a loud thumping sound.

After the ritual, the female sage grouse leave the lek to find nesting places, usually sage brush plants one to five miles from the lek. After their eggs have hatched, the grouse eventually move to higher elevations — brood rearing habitat — where there is more water and insects and grasses are plentiful.

Before construction of the viewing area, this sage grouse lek had a sheep trail/road running through the middle of it. According to BLM-Kemmerer wildlife biologist Gavin Lovell, "For years, this road received minimal use and was not a threat or disruption to strutting and mating sage grouse. However, with escalating oil and gas activity in the area, road traffic increased to the point that it was having a detrimental impact on the grouse."

BLM approached Dallas Bennett, production supervisor for Texaco at the time, about rerouting the road to the south of the lek and reclaiming that portion of the road that ran through the area. Texaco not only agreed to do this, but also volunteered to help establish a public sage grouse viewing area.

A BLM survey crew lays out the project.	The Scout troop installs perimeter posts to delineate the grouse viewing area.

After rerouting of the road and construction of the parking area were completed, BLM approached the Wyoming Game and Fish Department about providing interpretive signs and other materials for the public. An Eagle Scout candidate then organized his Mountain View, Wyoming, Boy Scout troop to help complete the project. The Scouts installed both directional and interpretive signs, and set log barrier posts around the parking area.

The viewing area is now complete, and each spring when the sage grouse are strutting, the public is invited to visit the viewing area and enjoy this natural spectacle. Around dawn on any given early spring morning, visitors are likely to see ten to a hundred birds on this lek.

The Scouts pose with the interpretive sign at the new viewing area. The Eagle Scout candidate received his rank after project completion.	A closer view of the interpretive sign.

The public viewing area is located off the Opal cut-off road (Highway 240). Approximately 2 miles south of Highway 189 on Highway 240, signs direct visitors approximately 1 mile east to the viewing area.

Visitors have a well-defined approach to the new viewing area.

For more information, please contact Gavin Lovell at Gavin_Lovell@blm.gov or (307) 828-4512.

Please also visit the following websites for more information on the sage grouse and sage grouse leks:

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Wildlife News
http://gf.state.wy.us/html/wywildlife/grouse.htm

American Lands Alliance Sage Grouse Conservation Project
http://www.sagegrouse.org/

GORP.com: Sage Grouse and Prairie Chicken Leks
http://gorp.com/gorp/publishers/fulcrum/bir_sps2.htm