Sage grouse not listed as endangered

A long-awaited decision announcing the West’s greater sage grouse will not be added to the Endangered Species List was announced last week.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and other governors stood by as U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell made the announcement along side U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe.

Mead later announced at a press conference the decision was “a tremendous victory for Wyoming and a tremendous victory for the West.”

Wyoming is one of 11 Western states home to around 37 percent of the remaining greater sage grouse. The birds survive primarily on a diet of sagebrush along with some plants and insects.

Research from the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies suggests greater sage-grouse populations are strongly on the rebound after a period of cyclical decline. WAFWA’s population trend analysis, conducted with the most recent state monitoring data, suggests a minimum spring breeding population of 432,000 greater sage grouse in 2015.

Wyoming land owners have either committed or enrolled around 500,000 acres of private land in sage grouse conservation programs.

If the sage grouse had received an Endangered Species Act listing it most likely would have had a big effect on Wyoming oil and gas industry development.

Following the announcement Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi had this to say from Washington, “The decision is a success for Wyoming and the sage grouse. The Wyoming plan has a demonstrated record of success and the decision keeps the state of Wyoming in the driver’s seat when it comes to sage grouse management.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were operating under a court-ordered Sept. 30 deadline to decide if the sage grouse needed Endangered Species Act protection. The action stemmed from a 2002 petition to list the sage grouse as endangered and a 2010 court decision.