The E:list: You’re not on it

Which is both good and bad for sage grouse

Americans love lists. We make lists for the sexiest celebrities, the hottest nightclubs … but one list nobody wants to be on is the Endangered Species List.

Robert Williams from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service updated Mono County’s Board of Supervisors in March on a the results of a recent determination as to whether the Mono Basin sage grouse and the sage grouse species in general are candidates for the country’s Endangered list.

After circulating several petitions, F&W made a finding, published in February 2005, which determined that the sage grouse did not warrant an Endangered Species listing. A decline in the bird’s population was determined in states such as Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon, but overall, F&W decided there wasn’t enough information to make a listing.

Legal challenges by petitioners questioned the finding, and the judge in the action bounced it back to F&W, saying he was dissatisfied with the level of biological study.

A subsequent finding last year determined that across an 11-state range, there’s enough information to correlate the decline of the bird’s numbers can be tied to a “threat.”

The finding doesn’t mean the birds are on the list … yet, but rather gives them candidate status. In terms of priority, the sage grouse in general is currently ranked an 8 on a scale where 1 is the highest and 12 is the lowest.

The bi-state (California/Nevada) ranking is somewhat higher, however, sitting at a 3.

Williams said he plans to sit down with BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies to conduct a preemptive update of a 2004 land management plan, but allowed that “this is not a listed species” and therefore there’s no immediate threat.”

A western ornithological society, which studied the same data used by Fish & Wildlife, has already said it has problems with the agency’s revised analysis. Williams said he hopes to have that resolved soon, but said it’s what happens when “two statisticians look at the same numbers and reach two different conclusions.”

Supervisor Hap Hazard said he didn’t like the idea of an “open-ended” approach to the sage grouse. He fears  the federal government will interject itself and its environmental edicts (as well as responsibilities) on the County.

One quandary the local sage grouse population represents is that one of its major population centers is near a landfill in a remote part of Mono County on Benton Crossing Road, which Williams called the effects of “indirect urbanization.” In other words, to protect the bird, the landfill may have to be closed.

And look out if you build a new landfill that the sage grouse likes. They’d probably shut that down, too.

Hazard told The Sheet he thinks it’s only appropriate that F&W sit down with the County, go over those maps and point out which areas are good for landfills and which aren’t.

The County, meanwhile, recently closed the Bridgeport landfill, and finding and opening another one is often a 10-15 year process involving securing land, environmental studies and public input, not to mention significant manpower and equipment logistics and expenses. Supervisors are also wary of getting years down a new process road, only to be informed that sage grouse are populating nearby and the new landfill site has to move.

Hazard, for one, isn’t thrilled with the way things are being handled environmentally. “Do they realize that 80% of the county’s population lives within about 200 square miles? I’m all for the environment, but this bird isn’t even listed, yet it’s being managed as though it is,” he said. “Seems to me as if they’re taking the easy way out.”

Supervisor Vikki Bauer said that leaves Mono County as one of the area’s that will have to take the point on sage grouse land management, given that two other counties, Douglas and Lyon, have essentially urbanized out any major populations centers in those locales. Williams said, however, there are no plans at this point to import or otherwise relocate birds from other areas.

Supervisor Hap Hazard said, however, Williams failed to mention the County as one of those agencies. Indicating his preference for the County to have a seat at the table, Hazard further said he didn’t like the idea of an “open-ended” approach to these types of issues when the federal government is involved. They interject themselves and then dump all the responsibility on you, which he said, “often leaves [such issues] lingering, sometimes for decades.”

Board members criticized maps provided in the F&W reports that they said were too nondescript, with lots of “shaded areas,” but too few landmarks.

One quandary about the area’s sage grouse is that one of the major population centers is centered near a landfill in a remote part of Mono County on Benton Crossing Road, which Williams called the effects of “indirect urbanization.” Hunting isn’t much of a factor, Williams said. Sage grouse hunting has been banned in Nevada, and only six permits to hunt them are issued in California.

Steve Nelson from the BLM said that agency has been working with the County for the past 20 years on the issue. “When you stack us up range-wide, we do pretty well,” he said. Possible relocation of the north County landfill, he said, wasn’t a BLM decision, but advised the County “start looking at what are perhaps better locations.”

Easy for him to say. Hazard told The Sheet he thinks it’s only appropriate that F&W sit down with the County, go over those maps and point out what areas are good and what aren’t.

Relocating the landfill may not even be an option, since it’s on land leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. That lease expires in another 10 years or so and will likely not be renewed.

The County, meanwhile, recently closed the Bridgeport landfill, and finding and opening another one is reportedly a 10-15 year process involving securing land, environmental studies and public input, not to mention significant manpower and equipment logistics and expenses. Supervisors are also wary of getting years down a new process road, only to be informed that sage grouse are populating nearby and the new landfill site has to move.

Hazard, for one, isn’t thrilled with the way things are being handled environmentally. “Do they realize that 80% of the county’s population lives within about 200 square miles? I’m all for the environment, but this bird isn’t even listed, yet it’s being managed as though it is,” he said. “Seems to me as if they’re taking the easy way out.”