Public comment period closes for BLM amendment to protect Gunnison Sage-Grouse
Environmental groups and county commissioners asking for greater buffer around sage-grouse habitats and strategies to protect sagebrush habitat from further degradation
By: Sophie Stuber
The public comment period recently closed for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse. Environmental organizations, including Sheep Mountain Alliance, the San Juans Citizen Alliance and Defenders of Wildlife submitted comments to the BLM to help prevent further loss, fragmentation and degradation of native sagebrush habitats and to protect higher-elevation habitats that may become sagebrush dominated systems as climate change increases temperatures in the southwest.
The BLM manages about 42% of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse’s current habitat, primarily located in southwest Colorado. The bird was classified as a threatened species in 2014. Historically, the Gunnison Sage-Grouse’s habitat reached across southwest Colorado, northern New Mexico, eastern Utah and northeastern Arizona. Today, their habitat is limited to the core Gunnison Basin population — located in west-central Colorado — and seven disconnected satellite populations.
“We are hoping for increased policy protections for the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, particularly in the satellite populations in San Miguel County. This includes larger buffers around leks, from oil and gas production, OHV trails, road development, and energy extraction,” Mason Osgood, executive director of Sheep Mountain Alliance, told the Planet.
The birds used to be so abundant that they were nicknamed “prairie chickens,” but their existing habitat is only about a tenth of the historical range. The two smallest satellite populations only have 36 birds. Their habitat is at risk of shrinking more due to energy development and mining, invasive species, livestock grazing land, climate change, and fires.
“As this habitat has been transformed into agriculture and other uses, it essentially gets fragmented up into these discontinuous patches,” Vera Smith, senior federal lands policy analyst at Defenders of Wildlife, told the Planet.
“It becomes harder and harder for the birds that are in these different patches to connect with one another,” Smith said.
Around Telluride, local environmental groups are fighting to protect satellite populations of Gunnison Sage-Grouse. Bird populations are still found in the West End, Norwood, Dry Creek Basin and Lone Cone.
Some of the environmentalists who are working to protect the sage-grouse’s small population have never set eyes on the bird.
The core Gunnison Basin population remains relatively stable, but the satellite populations have declined sharply. Currently, some are so small and isolated that they risk disappearing.
For the new BLM plan, protecting the remaining habitat and improved connectivity between habitats needs to be a greater priority, according to environmentalists.
“One of the key things we need to do is figure out how to enable connectivity between these discontinuous patches that now exist,” Smith said.
“This is really important in considering how we both sustain the current populations and then recover the species so it can be self-sustaining in the future.”
Along with regional environmental groups, San Miguel County has been actively working to protect the local sage-grouse population. The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has supported a Gunnison Sage-Grouse RMP plan amendment for years and submitted ten comments to the proposed BLM plan.
“We take the federal Endangered Species Act very seriously, and it's incumbent on us to do our very best to preserve the remaining bird populations and try to enhance the future population,” commissioner Lance Waring told the Planet.
The BOCC called for 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 commissioners also requested a larger buffer zone around sage-grouse habitats, including a 4-mile buffer for industrial solar energy development, and rerouting San Miguel County Road U29 for Gunnison Sage-Grouse habitat protection.
“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. We really want to minimize human activities to try to give the birds the best chance for peace and quiet,” Waring said.
Grazing is one of the primary potential conflicts, as livestock land often overlaps with sagebrush and bird habitat in the southwest.
“There is a long standing tradition of ranching and BLM leases that we don't oppose at all. But 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. There are so few birds left in our little corner of the West,” Waring said.
Protecting sage-grouse habitat can help the health of the planet. Initial research shows that deep-rooted sagebrush systems sequester more carbon than shallow grasslands.
Although the public comment is closed, Smith of Defenders of Wildlife encouraged people to still speak out to protect the birds.
“Just because we hit a comment deadline doesn't mean the conversation stops,” Smith said.
Osgood agreed, calling on the public to engage with their local elected officials.
“We are fortunate enough in San Miguel County to have a local working group to help the Gunnison Sage-Grouse and input, especially that of local knowledge of the birds and their changing conditions, is helpful,” he said.