126: Greater Sage Grouse
I teased this bird – the largest grouse in North America! – back in #81. They are fascinating, chicken-like creatures who mate in special areas called leks. We discussed leks also in #81. They are territories that the males – using their inflatable yellow pouches located on their breasts – defend and use as a stage to act out mating displays as potential partner lady grouses waltz by checking them out.
Here’s a weird fact about them: they are very strong, fast flyers, and can reach speeds of 50 mph over short distances.
The Greater Sage Grouse lives in the sagebrush environments that are found throughout western Colorado, especially northwestern Colorado (and 40% of the western United States), and if you have spent any time out there you have probably heard people’s opinions about these birds. They have been the focus of over 25 years of conservation efforts by Colorado Parks and Wildlife because they are critically endangered and also are an important species for the sagebrush environment – so long as they are happy, 250 other species can also be happy, including mule deer, pronghorns, and elk.
So why would anyone have any opinion other than that we should protect them? Sagebrush habitat in Colorado also has another inhabitant – an invasive species called the oil and gas industry. Protecting the Greater Sage Grouse means it is harder for them to suck fossil fuels out of the ground. I think you can guess how I feel about that, but Colorado’s politicians and federal politicians love the money that comes from the oil and gas industry.
From a 5280 article on the topic:
Clait E. Braun, a sage-grouse expert and former Colorado Division of Wildlife research biologist who now runs a consulting firm, Grouse Inc., singles out oil and gas as the chief threat to the bird. “The industry,” Braun says, “has by far had the largest most recent detrimental impacts on sage-grouse, through lax regulatory management, inadequate and improper construction restrictions, and outright long-term destruction of sagebrush steppe vegetation.”
That whole article is worth a read to hear about such ridiculous things as a “voluntary, market-driven program” that our former governor and now-Senator John Hickenlooper was into to get the oil and gas industry to just, I guess, be nice about it and give us some money to protect an endangered species. Obama also created a compromise about the sage grouse, again giving in to the oil and gas industry, rather than designating it as an endangered species. The end result of that was that Trump was able to completely roll back protections and now the oil and gas industry can drill without regard to the protection of this important and charming bird species. 30% of its population has been lost since 1985, which was around the time when extensive oil and gas drilling began in that region.
From Jimmy Tobias writing in Pacific Standard:
The collapse of the Obama administration's sage grouse conservation effort offers a number of important lessons in this age of mass extinction. It shows how much power the extractive industries continue to have over our government, leveraging their close ties to federal officials to obtain their desired outcomes. It also shows how risky compromise can be, especially when dealing with corporate interests concerned above all about their bottom line: If the sage grouse had been listed under the ESA, rather than protected by a weaker collaborative effort that was heavily influenced by industry players, it would still enjoy stringent federal protections. As things stand now, it is a bird with an uncertain future that may well continue its long-term decline…
The current extinction crisis is a deadly and enduring problem of the highest order. It calls for bold action, not political compromise. The U.S. has a law—the Endangered Species Act—that is incredibly effective at ensuring existence. Indeed, the ESA has successfully prevented the extinction of 99 percent of the species it protects. It is also incredibly popular with the American public: one recent study found that roughly four in five Americans support the law. If the collapse of the compromise sage grouse plans tells us anything, it is that we should embrace and expand the full power of this law and use it unsparingly to protect species like the grouse. The present moment demands nothing less.
We still have time to save this species – letting people like Senator Hickenlooper know that they’re cowards for giving in to the oil and gas industry in the face of mass extinction is one helpful thing you can do!
Also they’re so delightfully silly to look at that I had to draw this male: