NYT: U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse (photo)

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: December 3, 2004


Associated Press
The territory of the sage grouse has shrunk substantially.


WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - Amid an intense lobbying effort by energy and ranching interests in the West, a team of Interior Department biologists has recommended that the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory has been vastly reduced by farming and development, is not threatened with extinction and does not for the moment need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act....

***

Not since the spotted owl achieved protected status, prompting a 1991 court ruling that vastly curtailed logging in Northwestern forests, has a proposed listing had as much potential economic impact. The petition to have the government protect the sage grouse has provoked energetic lobbying and legal maneuvering, with much of the biological science about its population trends and habitat coming under concerted attacks.

The recommendation, which will be announced at the Western Governors' Association meeting in San Diego on Friday, followed the recommendations of the Western governors' group, the oil and gas industry and cattlemen's groups. In the 11 states that are home to the sage grouse, energy companies and ranchers would have faced significantly increased costs and regulatory delays if it had been listed as endangered.

Environmentalists had sought the listing, saying that sage grouse populations, while now stable, are poised for a catastrophic decline because of development and invasive species like cheatgrass, which combines with wildfires to consume their habitat, as well as diseases like West Nile virus....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/national/03bird.html

[Khephra]

1. Not a surprise at all

for those of us following this story...

...or for those of us who know what this administration is all about.

Sigh....

Double sigh....

[cornermouse]

2. Look at their plans to sell wild horses for slaughter.

A tidy profit with little effort. You can thank someone named Burns for this. I predict that they'll start phasing out the wild horse and burro adoption programs soon. They don't make as much profit off of that.

Of course, we'll still continue to rent pasture and mineral rights at a loss.