Getting Conservation To The Ground – A Layman’s Point of View
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The past couple of posts have been written to set the stage for a series of recollections of a little more than 10 years of direct involvement with Sage Grouse conservation and to focus on some ideas for going forward with enhancement/resource management projects.
I’m by no means a professional biologist or any type of an expert on Sage Grouse/Sage Brush habitat. The closest I’ve come to personal contact with Sage Grouse was an extremely early morning field trip to a Sage Grouse lek just outside Wellington, NV.
I’ve no formal Sage Grouse training beyond the information you can absorb from attending lots and lots of meetings on the subject, reading tons of material and watching a host of power-point presentations given by those who do have the credentials of “experts”. That isn’t to say however, that based on this level of experience, I haven’t earned some ability to present a perspective of what I’ve seen and been part of, attempting to make a difference in the well-being of Sage Grouse in Nevada.
From past writing about Sage Grouse conservation matters the idea might dawn on you that I don’t believe the Sage Grouse is an endangered species, warranting regulatory actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other federal agencies carrying out resource management limitation actions at the behest of the Wildlife Service. Regardless of the re-decide consideration given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife “experts” who were in the room for the consideration…after the highly questionable court ruling – Sage Grouse are really no more in peril than they were when the decision was made that a listing wasn’t warranted.
In spite of my disbelief about there being a basis for the current listing as a Candidate species, I do consider the past 10 years of conservation activity to have been well worth the time, miles and other investments made.
My first up-close-and-personal dealing with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) came in the form of the listing of the Desert Tortoise involving Southern Nevada. In that case, after a variety of earlier attempts to gain listing, petitioners happened across a mysterious respiratory condition that was supposedly ravaging Tortoise. In that situation, the species was listed with an emergency designation and the full-force and effect of the ESA landed on the beginning phase of what would become an explosive Las Vegas building/growth boom.
To resolve the shut-down situation, a conservation project was implemented with pay-off program that was connected to building permits issued by Clark County. Using the financial resources “earned” with this mitigation, a variety of activities were instituted and three massive Desert Tortoise conservation territories were created in rural neighboring counties to allow further development in Las Vegas. Tortoise gathered off lands being developed were placed in special housing, also purchased with the blood money paid for being allowed to continue to expand. At a point there were so many tortoise coming into the facilities that euthanasia of the “Endangered Species” was made necessary because there wasn’t any more room for the oodles of tortoise, teetering on the brink of existence.
Getting ahead of the curve was what the Sage Grouse Conservation idea was all about, proactively addressing resource concerns and working to enhance conditions while there was still possible maneuvering room. In addition to the projects and additional research/monitoring work that have been accomplished we have also been able to engage real people, directly involving them in understanding the needs of Sage Grouse and surfacing ideas on what could be done to resolve problem areas. With the volunteer contributions of ordinary citizens as well as the priority given by state and federal agency personnel – it would be nearly impossible to calculate the dollar values for what has gone into Sage Grouse conservation.
Through this involvement we’ve also gotten a much better understanding of the bureaucratic nature of species management, seeing first-hand the “science” and coming to more clearly recognize that not all we’ve been told about Endangered Species protection is possible to fathom while keeping a straight face and a reverent, blind-faith acceptance.
The past couple of posts have been written to set the stage for a series of recollections of a little more than 10 years of direct involvement with Sage Grouse conservation and to focus on some ideas for going forward with enhancement/resource management projects.
I’m by no means a professional biologist or any type of an expert on Sage Grouse/Sage Brush habitat. The closest I’ve come to personal contact with Sage Grouse was an extremely early morning field trip to a Sage Grouse lek just outside Wellington, NV.
I’ve no formal Sage Grouse training beyond the information you can absorb from attending lots and lots of meetings on the subject, reading tons of material and watching a host of power-point presentations given by those who do have the credentials of “experts”. That isn’t to say however, that based on this level of experience, I haven’t earned some ability to present a perspective of what I’ve seen and been part of, attempting to make a difference in the well-being of Sage Grouse in Nevada.
From past writing about Sage Grouse conservation matters the idea might dawn on you that I don’t believe the Sage Grouse is an endangered species, warranting regulatory actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or other federal agencies carrying out resource management limitation actions at the behest of the Wildlife Service. Regardless of the re-decide consideration given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife “experts” who were in the room for the consideration…after the highly questionable court ruling – Sage Grouse are really no more in peril than they were when the decision was made that a listing wasn’t warranted.
In spite of my disbelief about there being a basis for the current listing as a Candidate species, I do consider the past 10 years of conservation activity to have been well worth the time, miles and other investments made.
My first up-close-and-personal dealing with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) came in the form of the listing of the Desert Tortoise involving Southern Nevada. In that case, after a variety of earlier attempts to gain listing, petitioners happened across a mysterious respiratory condition that was supposedly ravaging Tortoise. In that situation, the species was listed with an emergency designation and the full-force and effect of the ESA landed on the beginning phase of what would become an explosive Las Vegas building/growth boom.
To resolve the shut-down situation, a conservation project was implemented with pay-off program that was connected to building permits issued by Clark County. Using the financial resources “earned” with this mitigation, a variety of activities were instituted and three massive Desert Tortoise conservation territories were created in rural neighboring counties to allow further development in Las Vegas. Tortoise gathered off lands being developed were placed in special housing, also purchased with the blood money paid for being allowed to continue to expand. At a point there were so many tortoise coming into the facilities that euthanasia of the “Endangered Species” was made necessary because there wasn’t any more room for the oodles of tortoise, teetering on the brink of existence.
Getting ahead of the curve was what the Sage Grouse Conservation idea was all about, proactively addressing resource concerns and working to enhance conditions while there was still possible maneuvering room. In addition to the projects and additional research/monitoring work that have been accomplished we have also been able to engage real people, directly involving them in understanding the needs of Sage Grouse and surfacing ideas on what could be done to resolve problem areas. With the volunteer contributions of ordinary citizens as well as the priority given by state and federal agency personnel – it would be nearly impossible to calculate the dollar values for what has gone into Sage Grouse conservation.
Through this involvement we’ve also gotten a much better understanding of the bureaucratic nature of species management, seeing first-hand the “science” and coming to more clearly recognize that not all we’ve been told about Endangered Species protection is possible to fathom while keeping a straight face and a reverent, blind-faith acceptance.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 12/27/2010 6:32 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
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