Sage Grouse Numbers Drop Drastically

Drought, drilling and other factors are causing the numbers of Sage Grouse to drop to very low numbers. It would be a shame to lose them.

Sage Grouse Population Drop

Joe

This is a good movie to watch, if you want to see some of what affects them:

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/sagebru ... ode/12341/

And a good article that is related:

https://blog.nature.org/science/2015/05 ... spotlight/

These are not necessarily areas developed for homes and the land is vast. When you talk about people moving in and changing things, I’m all to familiar with that, having been born and raised here. We are told to conserve water, only to see all the golf courses, in-ground hot tubs, lush gardens, koi ponds and trees that are planted by the wealthy newcomers. The areas where the Sage Grouse are different, though, in general. The drilling does decimate and fracture the sage areas. It’s happening here in New Mexico in the home of the Greater Prairie Chicken and sand dune lizard and the oil companies and ranchers fight against protection for them. We eventually will lose them to special interests, there is no doubt in my mind.

Joe

Since I live in Bend Oregon between the sage brush and the pine forests, we have different problems for our grouse. Fires and juniper encroachment really effect the birds. Disturbing of leks which have been used for hundreds of years can also wreck havoc. Right now our somewhat healthy population have been used to seed other states where the bird has already been lost. This is not very viable since the birds need their traditional leks. Wind farms are a constant battle.

Mike in O wrote:........Fires and juniper encroachment really effect the birds........

What’s good is that in the article I linked to above, sage brush is being grown in nurseries to restore burned areas and the Sage-grouse Initiative is working to restore areas encroached on by conifers and juniper.

Joe

Maybe regulations should be enacted for developers to tailor plantings to the side of natural habitats instead of Kentucky blue grass?
Then again the word
'regulation" is a bad word these days.
Paul

Paul Fusco wrote:Maybe regulations should be enacted for developers to tailor plantings to the side of natural habitats instead of Kentucky blue grass?
Then again the word
'regulation" is a bad word these days.
Paul

In Santa Fe, we already have regulations in place regarding Kentucky Bluegrass, but the cost of water already does a pretty good job of restricting lawns for all but the wealthy.

https://www.santafenm.gov/water_use_restrictions

Xeriscaping is the norm now.

Joe

Mike in O wrote:Since I live in Bend Oregon between the sage brush and the pine forests, we have different problems for our grouse.  Fires and juniper encroachment really effect the birds.  Disturbing of leks which have been used for hundreds of years can also wreck havoc.  Right now our somewhat healthy population have been used to seed other states where the bird has already been lost.   This is not very viable since the birds need their traditional leks.  Wind farms are a constant battle.

The Juniper encroachment is spurious and over and over again we see cattle grazing as a major factor in the decline of Sage Grouse. 

http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2019/09/03/juniper-removal-red-herring/

Juniper encroachment allow birds of prey a launching site which the grouse know...so they avoid all areas with trees. Cattle grazing has lots of bad effects (stomping on nests etc.) but is not a major source of problems because they don't eat sage (a poisonous plant which only a few animals can tolerate).

Mike in O wrote:Juniper encroachment allow birds of prey a launching site which the grouse know...so they avoid all areas with trees.  Cattle grazing has lots of bad effects (stomping on nests etc.) but is not a major source of problems because they don't eat sage (a poisonous plant which only a few animals can tolerate).

Agreed, cattle don't normally eat sage brush and in this regard don't compete with sage grouse, who definitely are sage brush obligates. Possibly you didn't read the article above that I mentioned, among the negative effects noted of grazing cattle in Sage Grouse habitat are:

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]"Livestock production also impacts sage grouse by the damage done to wetlands and riparian areas from trampling, the resultant soil compaction, and loss of vegetative cover due to livestock grazing. Sage grouse chicks are dependent on these wet areas where they feed on insects and specific flowers.[/font]
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Livestock water troughs are used by mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus, which can cause significant mortality in sage grouse.
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Sage grouse avoid flying over vast expanses of non-sagebrush habitat created by hay fields. Considering many valley bottoms around the West have been converted to hay production, the resulting habitat fragmentation is significant.
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Perhaps one of the main ways that livestock production harms sage grouse is by the spread of cheatgrass. Cheatgrass is an alien annual grass that is highly flammable. Cheatgrass spread is facilitated by livestock due to the selective grazing of native grasses. Removal of native grasses by livestock gives cheatgrass a competitive advantage in the competition for resources like water.
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[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Furthermore, cattle hooves trample soil biocrusts, which generally grow in the spaces between native bunchgrasses. Biocrusts inhibit the establishment of cheatgrass."[/font]
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[font=Calibri, sans-serif]Collectively all these livestock production factors create a “headwind” for sage grouse survival in many parts of the West. (Energy production, conversion of sagebrush habitat to wheat and hayfields, and so forth are also factors in sage grouse decline).[/font]

You won't get me defending cattle grazing and the mis-management by the BLM. Another thing to consider with Juniper management and clearing them, allows ground water to come back. It is amazing to see creeks coming back to life after Juniper clearing. The greatest spread of cheat-grass (which cattle normally won't eat) is range fires. Sage plants are normally very old and when they burn, recovery is difficult. It also doesn't help that Oregon allows hunting for these birds which aren't very palatable. Sage grouse if their lek is not disturbed can exist with hay fields...it is important to map all leks so they can used and protected. Of course hay fields attract rodents which attract hawks & eagles which also puts pressure on the birds. Two large wind farms have been delayed or stopped because BLM's mapping of the leks. There was a voluntary agreement with many of the States to keep the bird from ESA list but the present Administration squashed that.