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Time is running out for the greater sage-grouse, which is rapidly losing habitat across the West. E&E News reports that population numbers are especially bad in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah, due to a combination of drought, wildfires, and invasive plants that can overwhelm the sagebrush ecosystem.
A multi-state agreement to protect the grouse in 2015 was largely ignored by the Trump administration, and now the bird's core remaining habitat of 26 million acres is disappearing at a rate of 1.3 million acres a year. The plummeting numbers have raised concerns that the 2015 decision to not list the grouse under the Endangered Species Act could be reversed—a move that would have massive implications for ranchers, oil and gas companies, and wildlife managers across the West.
Ed Arnett, a biologist and CEO of the Wildlife Society, told E&E, "The trends are going in the wrong direction for us to say we can somehow scientifically and legitimately support that 'not warranted' decision."
Scientists are currently counting male grouse at breeding grounds, or leks, across the West. In Wyoming, which has the largest remaining grouse population, lek attendance fell 13 percent in 2021.
While 2022 numbers are still several months away, early reports are not encouraging. "It's looking pretty ugly out there so far this spring from what I hear," Arnett said.
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We’re always gonna have fire. The question is, are we going to have megafires that fundamentally change the ecosystem? And that’s what we’re fighting back against, and that’s why Congress is investing so much money and the president has asked for it.”
