An Interesting Article For One DBR Member In Particular

[Rich]

Trump Plans Major Rollback of Sage Grouse Protections to Spur Oil Exploration

The Trump administration on Thursday detailed its plan to open 9 million acres to drilling and mining by stripping away protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that oil companies have long considered an obstacle to some of the richest deposits in the American West.

Sorry Sage!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/c...rouse-oil.html

[dudog84]

Sorry Sage!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/c...rouse-oil.html

Dem's fightin' words!

[PackMan97]

I had no idea sage grouse was a thing. I always thought that poster was calling themselves a smart person who complains about petty things.

[OldPhiKap]

I had no idea sage grouse was a thing. I always thought that poster was calling themselves a smart person who complains about petty things.

Smart bird, he is.

[camion]

I had no idea sage grouse was a thing. I always thought that poster was calling themselves a smart person who complains about petty things.

Well I don't know about that but, Stay off of my, uh, prairie!!

sage-grouse.jpg

[sagegrouse]

Thanks for the heads up. This has been under debate and I will be sorry to see my favorite leks carved with dirt roads and punctured with drilling rigs. The hens will be very unhappy.

"Sage Grouse" is my second name on DBR. I was originally "Blue Grouse," a smaller but still sizable bird found in the winter in the higher mountains among the spruces and firs but in the summer at lower elevations such as the brush in my yard. "Grouse" gave me some cover for my grumpier posts; "Blue" was appropriate here. Then, however, the American Ornithological Union decided to split the Blue Grouse into a Rocky Mtn. species, Dusky Grouse, and a Cascades species, Sooty Grouse. "Dusky Grouse?" "Sooty Grouse?" As a birder friend's wife said, some bird names are so dumb they could only have been dreamed up by a man.

"Sage Grouse" is a bird of the region but not seen in my yard and OK for my advanced age on DBR.

[dudog84]

Thanks for the heads up. This has been under debate and I will be sorry to see my favorite leks carved with dirt roads and punctured with drilling rigs. The hens will be very unhappy.

"Sage Grouse" is my second name on DBR. I was originally "Blue Grouse," a smaller but still sizable bird found in the winter in the higher mountains among the spruces and firs but in the summer at lower elevations such as the brush in my yard. "Grouse" gave me some cover for my grumpier posts; "Blue" was appropriate here. Then, however, the American Ornithological Union decided to split the Blue Grouse into a Rocky Mtn. species, Dusky Grouse, and a Cascades species, Sooty Grouse. "Dusky Grouse?" "Sooty Grouse?" As a birder friend's wife said, some bird names are so dumb they could only have been dreamed up by a man.

"Sage Grouse" is a bird of the region but not seen in my yard and OK for my advanced age on DBR.

Very cool. I think we should all have to explain our username, might be fun (and enlightening). Not 'have to', voluntary. Probably deserves its own thread.

[Neals384]

OK, I have seen the Sage Grouse, and it is a magnificent bird.

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

"Conservation

Residential building and energy development have caused the greater sage-grouse population to decline from 16 million 100 years ago to between 200,000 and 500,000 today.

This species is in decline due to loss of habitat; the bird's range has shrunk in historical times, having been extirpated from British Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico. Though the greater sage-grouse as a whole is not considered endangered by the IUCN, local populations may be in serious danger of extinction. --snip--

In the United States, the species was a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act,[54][55] but the US Fish and Wildlife Service was forced by the US Congress, to not grant endangered species status in September 2015.

The original petition to list the Greater Sage Grouse was mailed to the USFWS in June, 2002 by Craig Dremann of Redwood City. Dremann, for his petition, quoted a Department of Interior document about the declining status of the bird, putting the USFWS in the difficult position of having to argue against another Federal agency's findings. The reason why Dremann sought the listing, is after driving across the bird's range in 1997, and noting what vegetation grew at each post mile, from California to South Dakota and back, recorded how damaged and destroyed the native sagebrush understory habitat had become from lack of management of the grazing of public lands."

OK, so the species is declining from residential development, energy development and grazing. My bet is that grazing is the major cause here, as noted by Mr. Dremann.

Sage grouse is not listed in the ESA, but Trump had nothing to do with that. So it seems like this new decision is consistent with sage grouse's current status and existing law, and allows us to continue to develop our energy resources.

[Devilwin]

The greater sage grouse is listed as "near threatened", by the IUCN. This means if left to their own devices, the current population can sustain itself. But mucking around with their habitat could be critical. All it would take is a series of prairie fires to doom the population.
The heath hen was a subspecies of prairie chicken that inhabited the eastern coast from New Hampshire to Virginia. The birds were hunted relentlessly, and several years of unusual numbers of goshawks and Cooper's hawks (accipiters, hawks that eat other birds) took many birds, and fires destroyed many birds and their habitat. The last known specimen died on December 8th, 1928.
We need to prevent this from happening again..

[devildeac]

Very cool. I think we should all have to explain our username, might be fun (and enlightening). Not 'have to', voluntary. Probably deserves its own thread.

We may have done this decades ago (), but it'd be fun to re-visit. Who's in?

[Tripping William]

We may have done this decades ago (), but it'd be fun to re-visit. Who's in?

I’m down with that.

[PackMan97]

Mine is a secret. No one can know.

[dudog84]

Mine is a secret. No one can know.

I always assumed it meant you never got any further than 97 bottles of beer on the wall.

[OldPhiKap]

I always assumed it meant you never got any further than 97 bottles of beer on the wall.

Yeah, but he counts up from one.

[JNort]

OK, I have seen the Sage Grouse, and it is a magnificent bird.

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

"Conservation

Residential building and energy development have caused the greater sage-grouse population to decline from 16 million 100 years ago to between 200,000 and 500,000 today.

This species is in decline due to loss of habitat; the bird's range has shrunk in historical times, having been extirpated from British Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico. Though the greater sage-grouse as a whole is not considered endangered by the IUCN, local populations may be in serious danger of extinction. --snip--

In the United States, the species was a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act,[54][55] but the US Fish and Wildlife Service was forced by the US Congress, to not grant endangered species status in September 2015.

The original petition to list the Greater Sage Grouse was mailed to the USFWS in June, 2002 by Craig Dremann of Redwood City. Dremann, for his petition, quoted a Department of Interior document about the declining status of the bird, putting the USFWS in the difficult position of having to argue against another Federal agency's findings. The reason why Dremann sought the listing, is after driving across the bird's range in 1997, and noting what vegetation grew at each post mile, from California to South Dakota and back, recorded how damaged and destroyed the native sagebrush understory habitat had become from lack of management of the grazing of public lands."

OK, so the species is declining from residential development, energy development and grazing. My bet is that grazing is the major cause here, as noted by Mr. Dremann.

Sage grouse is not listed in the ESA, but Trump had nothing to do with that. So it seems like this new decision is consistent with sage grouse's current status and existing law, and allows us to continue to develop our energy resources.

Well drilling for oil would be the same as residential development, it forces them out.


Also this doesn't help our energy sources, but that's a bigger argument that wouldn't be tolerated here.