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<\/a><\/p>\nOn my last Montana trip several weeks ago I came across several of these grouse just as I was leaving the Centennial Valley.\u00a0 These were the first of the species I’d\u00a0encountered in many years and I was thrilled to see them.\u00a0 I didn’t get any great photos of them so I had no plans to post any – until a few days ago when Nicole,\u00a0one of my regular\u00a0readers,\u00a0 sent me a link to a recent story done by National Public Radio on the plight of the\u00a0Sage-Grouse in Montana’s Centennial\u00a0Valley and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
An epic battle, a “21st century range war”,\u00a0is likely about to begin with\u00a0environmentalists and the federal government on one side and ranchers and energy companies on the other over the survival of this species .\u00a0 The Fish and Wildlife Service will decide within two years if\u00a0it will add the\u00a0Greater Sage-Grouse to the formal list of endangered species.\u00a0 If that happens ranchers worry that they’ll be prevented from grazing cattle near endangered birds and energy companies fear they won’t be able to drill.<\/p>\n
But something new is being tried to hopefully prevent such a “range war” from occurring – it’s\u00a0called the Sage Grouse Initiative.\u00a0 The SGI was initiated by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the program is a consortium that includes the Nature Conservancy and the wildlife agencies and universities of several states.\u00a0 It’s goal is to protect grouse now<\/em> so the feds don’t have to list the bird as endangered – a step that would surely start a protracted battle between the government and\u00a0ranchers and energy companies.\u00a0 Both ranchers and “critters” depend on the sagebrush steppes in the west and this initiative is an ambitious attempt to bring both sides together for a common goal – an “unlikely alliance”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the things mentioned in the NPR story\u00a0that threatens these grouse (and other species, pronghorn in\u00a0particular) is fences like this one.\u00a0 These\u00a0heavy-bodied birds\u00a0often hit the wires in flight and die.\u00a0 As I was photographing these two grouse they obviously saw my pickup (on the road) as a potential threat and they were deliberately walking away to get at a safe distance from me.\u00a0 But when they came to the fence they were obviously confused by it and stopped in their tracks, looking alternately at the fence and back at me.\u00a0 I’m just glad they didn’t fly in a panic and hit the fence.<\/p>\n The Sage Grouse Initiative is unique, innovative and ambitious.\u00a0 It’s likely the largest\u00a0conservation experiment that has ever been conducted in the United States – larger even than the huge effort that was made to save the Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 I strongly encourage my readers to follow this NPR link<\/strong> <\/a>and read about the SGI in the Centennial Valley – it’s goals, the means to those goals and the potential stumbling blocks in its path.\u00a0 There’s even a link in the story to a clip of Sage-Grouse displaying on the lek – always an entartaining\u00a0treat!<\/p>\n This post isn’t about my mediocre images – it’s about a near-heroic effort to save a bird and some very special habitat with the other species that go along with it.\u00a0 I’ll leave it to NPR to explain it –\u00a0they do it\u00a0much more effectively than I could.\u00a0 I hope the SGI succeeds and that\u00a0you’ll visit the link.<\/p>\n Thanks for providing it, Nicole!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greater Sage-Grouse is a spectacular bird in many ways. They’re our largest grouse – males may approach 7 lbs. The dramatic breeding display of the males on the lek is mind-boggling. And to have one of these birds flush at your feet is literally a heart-stopping experience – something I know from experience.<\/p>\n But these birds are in great danger of extinction due to dramatic loss of habitat.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n