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Wyoming Grouse Team Adds Protected Habitat Areas

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A state team released new recommendations Tuesday for preserving sage grouse in Wyoming, including adding more land that's designated as protected habitat for the birds.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal formed the Sage Grouse Implementation Team in 2007 as part of Wyoming's effort to stave off a federal decision to list the birds as a threatened or endangered species. In March, he asked the team for an updated assessment.

"We hope these recommendations will be the guide for the next five years, which is what they figure it's going to take to kind of get things stabilized in the core areas as well as get some other research done,'' Freudenthal said.

The new recommendations add about 300,000 acres of "core population area'' in Wyoming. The core areas now cover about a quarter of the state and include about 83 percent of the grouse population in the state, according to the team. The new core area maps are scheduled to be posted on the Wyoming Game and Fish Department website on Wednesday.

Freudenthal issued an executive order in 2008 restricting any new development in core population areas without proof that the development wouldn't hurt sage grouse numbers. Freudenthal pointed out Tuesday that enforcement of the new stipulations will be depend on whomever succeeds him as governor in November.

The sage grouse team consists of representatives of federal and state agencies, conservation groups, the energy industry and landowners. Its recommendations include stipulations meant to limit the effects of oil and gas drilling, mining, road building, overhead lines and other activity in core areas. The new report presumes wind development is "not compatible'' with sage grouse.

Wyoming is working to avert federal listing for sage grouse — a bird whose historic range covers 80 percent of the state — because the resulting restrictions on energy development and agriculture would be disastrous for the state's economy.

The state won a victory in March when the U.S. Department of Interior concluded that listing the chicken-sized bird as threatened or endangered is warranted but precluded by higher priorities. Environmental groups are challenging that decision in court.

Freudenthal said Tuesday's report demonstrates the state's dedication to practical protections for sage grouse.

"You have to have a strategy that lasts and is sufficient to withstand litigation,'' he said.

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