Planning for Conservation Success
In March 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) ruled that listing the species for protection under the Endangered Species Act was “warranted but precluded.” FWS said that it had other, higher priority species it needed to address first, but that it would address the greater sage-grouse in three years and determine if it needed to be listed at that time.
Much is at stake in the sagebrush habitat across the West: energy development, recreation, livestock grazing and fire management, to cite only a few examples. Proactively implementing the right policies and conservation measures now will reduce regulatory burdens on stakeholders and perhaps the need to the list the species under ESA. Now is the best time to restore and conserve habitat to avoid future actions that could limit everyone’s ability to manage sagebrush habitat.
In its finding, FWS said BLM is not “fully implementing the regulatory mechanisms available” to ensure species conservation. BLM’s basic land-use plans, called “Resource Management Plans,” (RMPs) are the primary mechanism to address these concerns. BLM is creating formal plan “amendments” reflecting these new conservation measures for as many as 98 RMPs which address greater sage-grouse Success in the BLM’s planning process lies in the involvement of multiple Federal, State and Tribal agencies; organizations; educational and research institutions and committed individuals.
Here’s how the BLM is implementing this effort:
• BLM will issue national policy and direction to maintain and enhance sagebrush habitats in the RMPs that contain greater sage-grouse, based on local needs and information. We will build consistent conservation measures into land-use planning efforts, including those already underway, to benefit sage-grouse.
• Sagebrush conservation and restoration will be guided by a National Policy Team; a National Technical Team; Regional Management Teams; and Regional and Sub-Regional interdisciplinary teams. Most of these teams include representatives from other federal and state agencies.
• The effort will also involve dividing the Greater Sage-grouse’s range into a Rocky Mountain Region and a Great Basin Region. Having two regions will allow for closer cooperation, partnerships, and tailoring of region-specific conservation and habitat restoration measures. - The Rocky Mountain Region will include Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, northeastern Utah, and Wyoming, where major sage-grouse threats include habitat loss and fragmentation due to energy development—both from oil and gas and renewable energy projects.
- The Great Basin Region will include California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and most of Utah, with a small portion of southwestern Montana , where major sage-grouse threats include wildfire, habitat loss due to invasive plant species including cheat grass and medusa head.
• We need the help of the public as we move forward. In early 2012, we’ll begin asking people and organizations, interested in greater sage-grouse and the health of sagebrush ecosystems in the West for their thoughts and opinions.
• We continue to build on the steps BLM and our partners have already taken to conserve sagebrush habitat. The BLM, FWS, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), local working groups and others have made progress by working jointly over the last decade to preserve and restore some sagebrush habitat.
BLM Greater Sage-grouse Accomplishments
Among our many accomplishments, we have:
- Mapped, for the first time, crucial breeding areas for sage-grouse all across the West. These maps show sage-grouse are highly clumped in their distribution enabling us to prioritize our conservation in areas where the greatest number of birds benefits.
- Used those maps to help protect sage-grouse habitat in fire-prone areas West-wide. As the FWS considers wildland fire one of the most serious threats to sage-grouse habitat, this is an important step forward.
- Employed a suite of high-tech tools to locate and track sage-grouse use of the public lands to refine our understanding of sage-grouse habitats.
While this extensive planning process is underway, the BLM also is developing conservation measures and policy recommendations for the interim protection of sagebrush habitat. These measures will help BLM offices determine whether to authorize or continue certain activities in greater sage-grouse habitat. They are designed to ensure that greater sage-grouse populations and habitats are maintained or improved and that habitat loss is minimized.
All of these efforts will culminate with revised or amended RMPs and publication of several Final Environmental Impact Statements in 2014. Working each step of the way with our partners, we aim to maintain and restore high-quality habitat and flourishing populations of greater sage-grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species.
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