Federal wildlife agency proposes designating 33,000 acres in southwestern N.D. for sage grouse habitat

To help protect the sage grouse, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named a candidate for the Endangered Species Act, the Bureau of Land Management has proposed designating 33,000 acres in southwestern North Dakota "as priority habitat that would limit motorized travel to existing roads and place surface occupancy restrictions that could limit oil and gas development, though existing leases would be allowed to develop with additional conservation measures designed to protect the grouse," Scott Streater reports for Environment and Energy News. (Photo from Colorado State University Institute for Livestock and the Environment)

The draft environmental impact statement is one of 15 being conducted as part of the BLM's "ongoing effort to develop a 'National Greater Sage-Grouse Planning Strategy' that would stretch across 10 western states and cover the estimated 47 million acres of sage grouse habitat under BLM control," Streater writes.

The proposal has been criticized by conservationists and oil and gas industry officials, Streater writes. "Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council in Bismarck, said most of the area in question has already been drilled and that the industry worked with BLM to restore drilled areas and to protect sage grouse breeding areas, called leks, during production." Ness told Streater, "and all of a sudden, they now come in with what's in essence a blanket roadless area."  (Wild Earth Guardians map shows historic and current ranges of the sage grouse)

Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with WildEarth Guardians in Laramie, Wyo., "said BLM has done a good job in the draft EIS for southwestern North Dakota of identifying priority habitat that warrants protection but has also failed to propose strong measures to keep industrial development out of the priority areas." Molivar told Streater, "It would be irresponsible to designate the most important wildlife habitats for this declining population and then allow industrial interests to destroy it." (Read more)