Nov. 13–WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday formally declared the Gunnison sage-grouse a “threatened” species, in effect ruling that years of efforts to protect the showy bird and its Colorado habitat weren’t sufficient to ensure its long-term survival.
The federal move will limit oil and gas development in the 1.7 million acres of Colorado and southeast Utah where the chicken-like Gunnison sage-grouse lives and struts.
The ruling by the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service is likely to set off a legal battle in Colorado, where Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday threatened to file a lawsuit challenging the decision.
And it could presage trouble for efforts to voluntarily safeguard a related species, the Greater sage-grouse, which has habitat spread across 165 million acres in 11 Western states, often overlapping with drilling rigs and oil wells.
Both the Gunnison and the larger greater sage-grouse are especially sensitive to disturbances during their showy courtship rituals and have dwindled in number amid nearby drilling, wildfires and grazing livestock. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the population of Gunnison sage-grouse has dropped to about 4,700 birds in 7 to 12 percent of their historic range.
Conservation efforts and land-use restrictions have stabilized the core population of Gunnison sage-grouse concentrated in Gunnison County, Colo. But the Fish and Wildlife Service said it remained concerned about the viability of the satellite population scattered across 11 Colorado and Utah counties.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe credited the voluntary conservation measures with prompting the agency’s decision to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as “threatened,” instead of giving it a more urgent — and restrictive — “endangered” status.
“We believe the best science available points to a conclusion that the bird, while not facing an imminent risk of extinction …is still likely to face extinction in the future,” Ashe said in a conference call with reporters. “Therefore a threatened listing under the Endangered Species Act is a proper conclusion.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service is obligated to decide whether the both birds qualify for Endangered Species Act protections under a settlement reached with the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians three years ago. The agency, which is expected to rule on the Greater Sage-Grouse next year, also has to issue verdicts on scores of other species by 2018.
‘Deeply disappointed’
Political leaders who wanted to prevent a listing said the decision is a slap in the face to the ranchers, conservationists and government officials who spent millions of dollars and years trying to safeguard the fowl. Hickenlooper said he was “deeply disappointed” and called the move “a major blow to voluntary conservation efforts.”
“We will do everything we can — including taking the agency to court — to fight this listing and support impacted local governments, landowners and other stakeholders,” he said.
Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government affairs for the Western Energy Alliance, said in an interview the threatened listing “is a strong signal for Westerners that their efforts are going to be ignored.”
Ashe said the Fish and Wildlife Service has the flexibility to tailor restrictions to protect the Gunnison sage-grouse, including exempting routine agricultural activities from new requirements.
Modifications ahead
But the oil and gas industry will have to make modifications, particularly around the leks — territories on which the grouse congregate for their elaborate mating rituals — and among satellite populations that may each comprise fewer than 300 birds.
“For the most part, oil and gas development can be conducted in a way that is compatible with Gunnison sage-grouse conservation,” Ashe said. In “some areas,” he said, it will require “significant commitment in order to avoid surface disturbance, through directional drilling and the consolidation of facilities.”
“We don’t see a high potential for oil and gas development across the range of the Gunnison grouse. Where there is potential, there needs to be discussion, and we need to be careful, particularly with these satellite populations, that we don’t dig the hole deeper.”
Sgamma said the agency was understating the area’s energy potential and the risk to oil development.
“It will make it extremely difficult to develop energy in the area,” she said.