Sage grouse group meets Friday at BHF

The Bighorn Basin Sage Grouse Working Group will hold a meeting from 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. Friday, April 29 in the meeting room at Big Horn Federal Bank in Thermopolis. The public is invited to attend.

The primary purpose of the meeting is to review projects for funding in order to implement local conservation plans.

In 2007, the Sage-grouse Conservation Plan for the Big Horn Basin was finalized. When it was completed, the conservation plan encompassed the best available personal, professional and science experience and first-hand knowledge of the Big Horn Basin's ecologic and socio-economic conditions to provide management direction with the aim of conserving greater sage-grouse in the Basin.

The plan is set to be updated every five years. The Big Horn Basin Local Sage-grouse Working Group developed the newest version of the plan to satisfy that schedule and to provide an update of activities for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prior to their decision to list or not list sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act by fall 2015. In the addendum, accomplishments and new information garnered since 2007 are included as well as recommendations for future management direction. A number of bio-political changes have occurred and new scientific knowledge has been gathered since the development of the original plan. The new information and changes have influenced recent management recommendations.

The plan identifies several factors affecting sage-grouse populations and habitats, including predation, weather, livestock grazing, vegetation management, mineral development, wind energy, invasive plants, parasites and diseases, residential development, recreation, conflicting wildlife management, conflicting wild horse management, farming and hunting.

The plan also lays out conservation goals and the accomplishments thus far in achieving those goals as well as what still needs to be done in the future.

To read the local conservation plan, Conservation Plan for Sage-grouse in the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, visit https://wgfd.wyo.gov/WGFD/media/content/PDF/Habitat/Sage%20Grouse/SG_BHB_CONSERVPLAN.pdf.