Voices from Sage-Grouse Country
Montana Sportsman: Sage-grouse Need Our Help to Survive
Westerners who live, recreate and make their living in Sagebrush Country want to save the greater sage-grouse, a bird that once numbered in the millions, and want to save the sagebrush steppe. The steppe, which is habitat for sage-grouse and more than 350 species, has been reduced in size and degraded by urbanization, wildfires, invasive species, energy development, overgrazing. There are fewer than a half million sage-grouse across 11 Western states.
Communities, ranchers, state and local agencies and nonprofits have teamed up to conserve sage-grouse and the habitat that’s also home to mule deer, elk and pronghorn. Their work and conservation plans the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management wrote with input from states and locals led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide that sage-grouse didn’t need to be placed on the endangered species list.
A year after that decision, it’s time to put the plans in action and rebuild the population of a signature Western species. Leading up to Sept. 22, the one-year anniversary of Fish and Wildlife’s announcement, the National Wildlife Federation is daily showcasing Westerners who care about the greater sage-grouse and its habitat. They want the political wrangling over the conservation plans to stop so we can get on with saving the bird and the herds.
These are some of the “Voices of the Sage.”
“I think sage-grouse will survive, but only if people want it to survive and take action to help it survive.”
That is the assessment by Jim Posewitz of the greater sage-grouse, the chicken-sized bird with the elaborate mating ritual. The longtime Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist and well-known author and conservationist offers a perspective honed by years of observing and participating in the science and politics of natural-resource management.
Posewitz, whose book “Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting” is a staple for many outdoor enthusiasts, is optimistic about efforts to rebuild sage-grouse populations — with a caveat.
“If it’s just a proclamation or words on paper that does not include boots on the ground, monitoring their strutting grounds and whatever other criteria we want to use to measure birds’ health and abundance, then it’s just sort of a human exercise,” he says.
Perhaps, Posewitz adds, conservation organizations can help by putting boots on the ground to monitor the bird’s progress as the state and federal conservation plans are carried out.
“Unless you monitor and measure, you won’t know whether the bird’s needs are being met.”
There’s hope, Posewitz adds. He points to the ongoing restoration of bison to the northern plains and the work by sportsmen, environmentalists and politicians in the last century to restore fish and wildlife populations that were devastated by westward expansion and unregulated exploitation.
“We went through the Dark Ages out here like everywhere in the country, when the market hunters were killing off the buffalo and killing everything,” Posewitz says.
Then, hunters, anglers and other conservationists began gathering to figure out how to turn things around, giving birth to the National Wildlife Federation, the Montana Wildlife Federation and other organizations. The Pittman-Robertson Act was passed to raise revenue nationwide for wildlife and habitat conservation through taxes on firearms and ammunition.
The rebuilding of sage-grouse populations can be another success story, if the effort is made and the important work of following through is done, Posewitz says.
Next up: A Nevada sportsman and wildlife advocate talks about his passion for the flora and fauna of the sagebrush steppe.
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