Getting Conservation To The Ground
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
If you wanted to create a law and a set of regulations which would serve as a model of a centralized government agency ruling with complete control, invasively inflicting damage on individual opportunities and doing so under the guise of a worthy purpose – you’d create the system we call the Endangered Species Act. To protect species of birds, animals, fish, reptiles and even plants from joining the ranks of other extinct species of the past – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules, supposedly within a scientific framework, to determine what species require attention and once determined needy with an iron-fist of power to keep anyone from doing something which would further harm the species deemed “protected”.
Since August of 1999, I’ve been involved in working on conservation activities to preclude the need for the Sage Grouse to be listed on the Endangered Species List. A number of petitions have been filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the Sage Grouse included on the Endangered Species List. Over the years of the involvement I’ve had, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the species did not warrant protection and then after a court case came to a different conclusion, based on the “science” of who was – or wasn’t in the room when the decision was made that the species did not warrant protection. Currently, Sage Grouse is on a list of “Candidate Species which are warranted, but precluded” -- meaning that those who would like to see the bird listed got their way, but there are so many other things in the same boat that we can’t get around to over-regulating on these too.
As a land-scape species (meaning it takes lots of ground to provide the species a place to live) Sage Grouse are the perfect species for those who want to flex their command and control influence. Sage Grouse require Sage Brush to live…it’s their home and a major food source.
Sage Brush is diminishing in the land areas it covers (although driving across most of Nevada and looking out the window you might be surprised to come to that conclusion). Across the Western United States (Sage Brush country) we (greedy people who came here to settle and live) removed Sage Brush to establish farms and grow crops. Houses were built, infrastructure constructed, towns and cities happened – Sage Brush went away. Also natural factors (possibly made worse by our approach to managing lands) like wildfire have swept across large tracts of Sage Brush, not only charring the countryside, but since Sage Brush doesn’t grow back very fast in arid conditions – changing the habitat to something other than Sage Brush needed by Sage Grouse.
Over the next few post I want to recount the process of Conservation Planning that I and literally hundreds (perhaps thousands) of others have been involved with over the past 10-plus years. I also want to get to the heart of the fundamental action required to deal with not only Sage Grouse enhancement, but lots of other Endangered Species recovery efforts too – On the ground, real life conservation work…
If you wanted to create a law and a set of regulations which would serve as a model of a centralized government agency ruling with complete control, invasively inflicting damage on individual opportunities and doing so under the guise of a worthy purpose – you’d create the system we call the Endangered Species Act. To protect species of birds, animals, fish, reptiles and even plants from joining the ranks of other extinct species of the past – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules, supposedly within a scientific framework, to determine what species require attention and once determined needy with an iron-fist of power to keep anyone from doing something which would further harm the species deemed “protected”.
Since August of 1999, I’ve been involved in working on conservation activities to preclude the need for the Sage Grouse to be listed on the Endangered Species List. A number of petitions have been filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the Sage Grouse included on the Endangered Species List. Over the years of the involvement I’ve had, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the species did not warrant protection and then after a court case came to a different conclusion, based on the “science” of who was – or wasn’t in the room when the decision was made that the species did not warrant protection. Currently, Sage Grouse is on a list of “Candidate Species which are warranted, but precluded” -- meaning that those who would like to see the bird listed got their way, but there are so many other things in the same boat that we can’t get around to over-regulating on these too.
As a land-scape species (meaning it takes lots of ground to provide the species a place to live) Sage Grouse are the perfect species for those who want to flex their command and control influence. Sage Grouse require Sage Brush to live…it’s their home and a major food source.
Sage Brush is diminishing in the land areas it covers (although driving across most of Nevada and looking out the window you might be surprised to come to that conclusion). Across the Western United States (Sage Brush country) we (greedy people who came here to settle and live) removed Sage Brush to establish farms and grow crops. Houses were built, infrastructure constructed, towns and cities happened – Sage Brush went away. Also natural factors (possibly made worse by our approach to managing lands) like wildfire have swept across large tracts of Sage Brush, not only charring the countryside, but since Sage Brush doesn’t grow back very fast in arid conditions – changing the habitat to something other than Sage Brush needed by Sage Grouse.
Over the next few post I want to recount the process of Conservation Planning that I and literally hundreds (perhaps thousands) of others have been involved with over the past 10-plus years. I also want to get to the heart of the fundamental action required to deal with not only Sage Grouse enhancement, but lots of other Endangered Species recovery efforts too – On the ground, real life conservation work…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 12/26/2010 5:39 AM 
Categories: Sage Grouse
Tags: Sage Grouse Endangered Species Nevada Conservation Sage Brush
Categories: Sage Grouse
Tags: Sage Grouse Endangered Species Nevada Conservation Sage Brush
Once again, Doug, you take a conclusion that should be obvious and spin it so the thinking and acting, that has landed Nevada in such serious economic and social straits, is perpetuated. There is a not-so-fine line between development and exploitation. Nevada is being exploited. The resultant impacts on Nevada's natural resources is reflected in the declining sage grouse population and available water resources. Urban planning in Nevada is a joke. As long as Nevada's elected officials, predominately business people, believe their public service constitutes guaranteeing huge profit margins to special interests, we'll see more and more wildlife species disappear. Agriculture will suffer as water resources disappear. As someone who is representative of the "Farm Bureau," I would expect you would understand this.
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