The governors of Western states are moving to change the Endangered Species Act to give states and landowners more power. During a two day Western Governors Association summit on the law that concluded Saturday, the governors considered ways to take more control over listing decisions. While the association represents the governors of 18 states, only seven governors attended the summit. Representatives of agriculture, conservation groups, and industry also participated.

Colorado Governor Bill Owens at the Western Governors Association Exucitve Summit on the Endangered Species Act. (Photo courtesy WGA)

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat, said, "I am pleased that no one at the summit is talking about rolling back protections for endangered species. What I heard at the summit confirms my view that the Endangered Species Act is an important, effective conservation law."

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (Photo courtesy WGA)

But the rift between the governors and conservationists was illustrated Friday in their differing reactions to the recommendation of senior scientists of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Mountain-Prairie Regional office that the greater sage grouse is not threatened with extinction and does not need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Owens recognized the Service for its "leadership" in making this recommendation.

Conservationists were disappointed but not surprised by news. “Sage grouse have suffered precipitous declines in recent decades,” said Mark Salvo, director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign. “A listing would have required the federal government to protect sagebrush habitat where the sage grouse lives."

The historic range of the sage grouse included 16 Western states and three Canadian provinces, but the grouse has disappeared from Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and British Columbia.

Sage grouse habitat overlaps oil and gas basins in the West, and oil and gas drilling is a leading threat to the survival of sage grouse.

Sage grouse have elaborate courtship rituals that take place at the same sites year after year, and the noise and disturbance from nearby oil and gas drilling makes it difficult for the males’ booming calls to be heard by their intended mates. Overgrazing, sagebrush removal, and West Nile virus also threaten the grouse.

"By not listing the species, damaging activities will be allowed to continue on much of the sagebrush steppe, to the detriment of sage grouse and scores of other wildlife species," said Salvo.

The Western governors said in a statement Friday that the Service's preliminary decision "recognizes the success of locally led efforts in the West to conserve the greater sage grouse."

"Our biologists have conducted a thorough review of the best available scientific information and, in their view, recommend that the greater sage-grouse does not warrant the special protections of the Act across its range," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams.

Current sagebrush habitat is estimated at 100 to 150 million acres - 54 percent of historic acreage, according to the Service, which says greater sage grouse are estimated to number "from 142,000 to 500,000 individuals."

Sage grouse populations declined an average of 3.5 percent per year from 1965 to 1985. Since 1986, however, populations in several states have increased or generally stabilized and the rate of decline from 1986 to 2003 slowed to 0.37 percent annually for the species across its entire range, the Service estimates.

Williams said the best solution for conserving the greater sage grouse is for federal agencies and western states to continue to support cooperative efforts to conserve and restore sage grouse habitat.

Male sage grouse. Sage grouse have been disappearing from their historic range since 1900. (Photo by Rob Bennetts courtesy USFWS)

"It began three years before the listing petition with a 2000 memorandum of understanding between the Western states' wildlife agencies and the Department of Interior," the governors stated. "This effort has been, and will continue to be about conserving the sagebrush ecosystem for a wide variety of species and the overall health of the environment of our Western states."

The governors say they support the use of "the best science" and "any new science will be incorporated into the process as it becomes available."

But conservationists say current scientific recommendations to give the grouse the space it needs to reproduce are being ignored.

“The oil and gas industry has the directional drilling technology to produce oil and gas while siting roads and well pads outside sensitive breeding and nesting habitats,” said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for the Laramie based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

“By giving the grouse breeding areas the two to three mile buffer recommended by scientists, oil and gas development could be compatible with sage grouse conservation," Molvar said, "but the federal government has so far refused to require this common sense measure.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has acknowledged that numbers have declined between 69 and 99 percent in recent decades. The total sage grouse population, estimated at 140,000 individuals, represents only about eight percent of historic numbers.

"We would be happy to see the states step up to the plate and protect the sage grouse," said Erin Robertson, staff biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "But they haven't yet, and the health of the sagebrush ecosystem continues to decline while the states do little more than talk.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to make a final decision on whether to propose an Endangered Species Act listing for the grouse by the end of the month.

Whatever the federal agency's decision, the governors said they will continue to encourage state conservation efforts. In particular, they will sponsor, with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, a February conference in Reno, Nevada to convene local sage grouse working groups to learn from each other and decide what is required to ensure survival of the grouse.

Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota (Photo courtesy WGA)

A prairie dog poisoning program took place on the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in southwestern South Dakota in October and November to keep prairie dogs from moving onto adjacent private land. State employees and contractors on all-terrain vehicles spread oats covered with zinc phosphide over prairie dog burrows on thousands of acres, with the full support of Governor Rounds.

"The current process that encouraged this explosion of prairie dogs has made many of our ranch families 'candidates' for becoming 'endangered species' themselves, and that's just plain wrong," Rounds said. "We must change the process."

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle (Photo courtesy WGA)

The red ilima was listed as endangered in 1986 when there was only one individual plant known on Oahu. But a population of 90 plants was discovered in an abandoned cane field in 1996, surviving unnoticed in drainage ditches. Now 600 plants have been grown from cuttings and 200 from seeds.

"This conference has importantly emphasized the need to focus on the recovery of endangered species and the pivotal role states and private landowners play in recovery efforts," Lingle said. "In Hawaii we will continue to focus on preserving habitats and moving species toward recovery. We enjoy a unique ecosystem in the United States and recognize what an irreplaceable asset it represents."

When they next meet in early March, the governors will consider these recommendations made at the summit:

• Increase landowner certainty to assist states in protecting and recovering species
  
• Look at alternative solutions, such as mitigation banking and other market-based solutions
  
• Improve cooperative efforts, such as regional conservation planning
  
• Recognize successes that happen on the ground and encourage proactive planning
  
• Increase public participation in recovery planning and implementation