Getting Conservation To The Ground – We’ve Been Here Before
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The motivation behind the series of blogs I hope to write, regarding the involvement that I’ve had with Sage Grouse Conservation work, came from a December 16th evening meeting at the Smith Valley Library (Smith Valley, NV). The intention of this meeting was to restart the local Sage Grouse working groups planning efforts of the “Bi-State Sage Grouse Group”.
The Bi-State Sage Grouse Group (as the name implies) interested participants from the state boundary straddling areas involving Nevada counties of (Douglas, Lyon, Mineral, Esmeralda and Nye) as well as the California counties (Alpine, Mono and Inyo). This working group was established as one of the seven local area conservation groups outlined in the framework plan which came from the “Governor’s” Sage Grouse State Conservation Team. As a member of the “Governor’s Team,” formed by appointment of then Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, I attended the first of more than a decade of meetings in August of 1999. At that time, Sage Grouse were thought to be the next species to be targeted for a listing petition and before the conservation framework was completed on September 11, 2000 (yes, that day) the anticipation of petitions had been realized with several being submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife – starting with a listing petition for a population of Sage Grouse in the Long Valley area of California.
This first petition presented an interesting set of factors. Probably because of my cynical and less than true believing nature, I would suggest that the primary reason for this petition was the desire to shut down an airport expansion that was in the planning stages. The Endangered Species Act is the world’s greatest tool for stopping nearly anything (except for various energy transmission projects, but we’ll get to those matters farther into the story).
In the petition for listing request of the Mono-Sage Grouse population there was “lots of science” on how these specific birds in this specific area were in peril with citations of everywhere else in the Sage Grouse world being the examples for why the listing was critical (actually, an “Emergency” as I recall). My assessment at the time boiled down to the petitioners advocating that these birds “here” were in extreme danger and should be listed right away – without getting to the point of making the case of where (or why) “here” actually was.
Interestingly enough, as the biologist started working on the Sage Grouse of this area (on both sides of the California and Nevada border) a discovery was made – these birds exhibited a “unique” DNA marker not the same as birds in other parts of the 11-state “Sage Grouse” home range. Cue the drum roll and prepare the “science” of the Endangered Sub-Species Listing process!
As it has turned out, after 10-plus years of actual experience, the full-fledged, stop-the-world, operating system of the Endangered Species Act hasn’t been carried out – quite probably because of the involvement that thousands of citizens have had in conservation plans/work. On a range-wide basis Sage Grouse reside on the Candidate – warranted, but precluded – Species list with most of the birds rated down the ranking (at 8) for the priority of “stop-the-world”. The Sage Grouse in the Bi-State area are listed as a “Distinct Population” and have a higher risk rating (3) which prompts a greater concern and a bigger reason for moving forward with conservation work – the reason for getting the band back together for conservation planning and the December 16th meeting.
The motivation behind the series of blogs I hope to write, regarding the involvement that I’ve had with Sage Grouse Conservation work, came from a December 16th evening meeting at the Smith Valley Library (Smith Valley, NV). The intention of this meeting was to restart the local Sage Grouse working groups planning efforts of the “Bi-State Sage Grouse Group”.
The Bi-State Sage Grouse Group (as the name implies) interested participants from the state boundary straddling areas involving Nevada counties of (Douglas, Lyon, Mineral, Esmeralda and Nye) as well as the California counties (Alpine, Mono and Inyo). This working group was established as one of the seven local area conservation groups outlined in the framework plan which came from the “Governor’s” Sage Grouse State Conservation Team. As a member of the “Governor’s Team,” formed by appointment of then Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, I attended the first of more than a decade of meetings in August of 1999. At that time, Sage Grouse were thought to be the next species to be targeted for a listing petition and before the conservation framework was completed on September 11, 2000 (yes, that day) the anticipation of petitions had been realized with several being submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife – starting with a listing petition for a population of Sage Grouse in the Long Valley area of California.
This first petition presented an interesting set of factors. Probably because of my cynical and less than true believing nature, I would suggest that the primary reason for this petition was the desire to shut down an airport expansion that was in the planning stages. The Endangered Species Act is the world’s greatest tool for stopping nearly anything (except for various energy transmission projects, but we’ll get to those matters farther into the story).
In the petition for listing request of the Mono-Sage Grouse population there was “lots of science” on how these specific birds in this specific area were in peril with citations of everywhere else in the Sage Grouse world being the examples for why the listing was critical (actually, an “Emergency” as I recall). My assessment at the time boiled down to the petitioners advocating that these birds “here” were in extreme danger and should be listed right away – without getting to the point of making the case of where (or why) “here” actually was.
Interestingly enough, as the biologist started working on the Sage Grouse of this area (on both sides of the California and Nevada border) a discovery was made – these birds exhibited a “unique” DNA marker not the same as birds in other parts of the 11-state “Sage Grouse” home range. Cue the drum roll and prepare the “science” of the Endangered Sub-Species Listing process!
As it has turned out, after 10-plus years of actual experience, the full-fledged, stop-the-world, operating system of the Endangered Species Act hasn’t been carried out – quite probably because of the involvement that thousands of citizens have had in conservation plans/work. On a range-wide basis Sage Grouse reside on the Candidate – warranted, but precluded – Species list with most of the birds rated down the ranking (at 8) for the priority of “stop-the-world”. The Sage Grouse in the Bi-State area are listed as a “Distinct Population” and have a higher risk rating (3) which prompts a greater concern and a bigger reason for moving forward with conservation work – the reason for getting the band back together for conservation planning and the December 16th meeting.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 12/26/2010 12:51 PM 
Categories: Sage Grouse
Tags: Sage Grouse Endangered Species Nevada Conservation Sage Brush
Categories: Sage Grouse
Tags: Sage Grouse Endangered Species Nevada Conservation Sage Brush
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