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Scientists are alarmed that sage-grouse numbers are expected to drop across the West for the fourth year in a row. This strange bird serves as an ‘indicator species,’ predicting the health of plant and animal species across the sagebrush ecosystem. However, they are in danger. After years of negotiations, a historic collaborative conservation plan was signed in 2015 to try and protect the bird—but that plan was promptly thrown out by the Trump administration to promote drilling and mining.
On April 6, 22 scientists, including some who were a part of the 2015 collaborative plan, sent a letter expressing concerns regarding the federal government’s approach to the issue. They wrote, “The Department of Interior appears to be ignoring current science, which threatens its federal trust responsibility to conserve and manage our natural resources and may have severe consequences for sage-grouse.”
Sage-grouse populations can be impacted by numerous factors, including climate change and invasive species. But by far the biggest factor in their decline is habitat destruction from human development, particularly oil and gas development.
Extractive industry lease sales have ramped up in the past three years. Between 2017 and 2019, the acres leased in Wyoming went from 390,000 acres to nearly 1.2 million acres. Analysis has found that 27 percent of oil and gas leases sold during the Trump administration are located in sage-grouse priority management areas.
Now, after a 40 percent decrease in population in the past four years, there are only about 300,000 sage-grouse left in the United States.
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By limiting windows for public comment, [the EPA] certainly [is] muzzling voices of the people. And rolling back enforcement during a crisis like this? It can only be seen as intentional disregard of frontlines communities.”
