County gives updates on Gunnison Sage-Grouse conservation

Open Space Commission discusses strategies for the bird’s population recovery

By Sophie Stuber, Planet contributor

Starr Jamison, San Miguel County director for natural resources and special projects, gave an update on conservation efforts for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse during a San Miguel County Open Space Commission meeting on Monday, March 25.

The update focused on the county’s species recovery implementation strategy, as well as projects with US Fish and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service. Jamison recently attended a regional meeting in Montrose that discussed strategies to help recover the Gunnison Sage-Grouse population.

“The county gives $14,500 every year to support the Gunnison Sage-Grouse: the San Miguel Basin population and the Gunnison Sage-Grouse coordinator,” Jamison told the Planet.

San Miguel County has been actively working with regional environmental organizations for years and implemented a county-wide recovery plan for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse in 2020. The bird was classified as a threatened species in 2014.

“It's incumbent on us to do our very best to preserve the remaining bird populations and try to enhance the future population,” San Miguel County commissioner Lance Waring told the Daily Planet.

The Gunnison Sage-Grouse’s historical habitat spanned southwestern Colorado, northern New Mexico, eastern Utah and northeastern Arizona. Its existing habitat is now limited to the core Gunnison Basin population in west-central Colorado and seven disconnected satellite populations.

“Gunnison Basin has really the only remaining population of any significance. We're down to a handful of birds,” Waring said.

To help the San Miguel grouse population recover, the county’s efforts include outreach to private landowners, better inter-organization collaboration and the consideration of a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) or Safe Harbor Agreement.

These are voluntary agreements between private or other non-federal property owners to help the recovery of a species considered endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

San Miguel County focuses on areas adjacent to public lands and projects targeted at fuels reduction, water management and restoration. The recovery plan also involves federal lands in currently unoccupied environments that could potentially offer safe and effective habitats for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse.

Regionally, USGS has developed a tool to help determine which areas could most benefit from habitat restoration efforts for the sage grouse.

“It’s a habitat prioritization tool — a landscape scale habitat improvement project — to help prioritize where those improvement projects should take place,”Jamison said.

The BOCC has supported a Revised Management Procedure (RMP) plan amendment and previously submitted 10 public comments to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plan earlier this year. Jamison also updated the commissioners on the ongoing process for the RMP during Monday’s meeting.

These comments requested improved collaboration between the BLM and private landowners, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the United States Forest Service (USFS), and state and county officials. The BLM manages about 42% of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse’s current habitat, primarily located in southwest Colorado.

The commissioners also suggested a greater buffer zone around sage-grouse habitats, including 4-mile protections for industrial solar energy development, and a reroute of San Miguel County Road U29 to better maintain grouse habitat.

The core Gunnison Basin population remains relatively stable, but the satellite populations have significantly declined. The two smallest satellite populations are only 36 birds. Their habitat is further at risk due to energy development and mining, invasive species, livestock grazing land, climate change, and fires.

In early March, a group of seven environmental organizations, including San Juans Citizens Alliance, Sheep Mountain Alliance and Uranium Watch, requested a temporary moratorium on special use permits for mining and mineral exploration.

“The West End is home to a variety of ecosystems and critical habitat for Gunnison Sage-Grouse,” Mason Osgood, executive director of Sheep Mountain Alliance, told the Daily Planet.

Ultimately, the BOCC did not impose a temporary moratorium. County planning director Kaye Simonson noted that there were potential litigation risks with a moratorium, as SMC is not the primary responsible permitting agency (most are state and federal).

“We have some conflicting interests in the West End of the county, with mining being one of them. And we're trying to find that right balance between competing uses,” Waring said.

Aside from mining, grazing is another significant potential conflict since livestock land often encompasses sagebrush and bird habitat in southwestern Colorado.

“We do want to make sure that the seasonal nature of birds’ needs is matched with the cattle, so cows aren't trampling the little fledglings,” Waring said.

Protecting sage-grouse habitat can also help the health of the planet. Initial research shows that deep-rooted sagebrush systems sequester more carbon than shallow grasslands. Some higher-elevation habitats may also transform into sagebrush dominated systems as climate change increases temperatures in the southwest.

Read the article here.