In Frontier Battle Over Sage Grouse, Fossil Fuel Industry is Clear Winner

The greater sage grouse saga is but just one salvo in the U.S. frontier war—pitting fossil fuel extraction against environmental conservation—but the Obama administration’s announcement on Tuesday that it would not issue Endangered Species protections for the iconic bird made clear who won this battle: the oil and gas industry.

In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with the Department of the Interior framed the decision as a win for the sage grouse, highlighting what they described as an “unprecedented” public-private conservation effort between ranchers, energy developers, conservationists, and states.

And while some environmental organizations are celebrating this partnership, conservationists are sounding the alarm.

Randi Spivak, director of public lands at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that she would grade the overall sage grouse conservation campaign a solid “D.”

“Greater sage grouse have been in precipitous decline for years and deserve better than what they’re getting from the Obama administration,” Spivak said in a press statement. “While there are some important improvements for sage grouse in the new federal land-management plans, they still ultimately fall short of what’s needed to ensure these birds’ long-term survival.”

The chicken-sized bird ranges across 11 western U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Sage grouse once numbered in the millions but now have an estimated population of 200,000 to 500,000.

“In the end, this decision seems more based on political science than biological science.”
—Randi Spivak, Center for Biological Diversity

Spivak explained to Common Dreams that the conservation plan was developed as a compromise with certain stakeholders, such as livestock ranchers and the oil and gas drilling industry, in mind.

For example, despite recommendations from the federal government’s own scientists to grant sage grouse mating zones a four-mile buffer, the conservation plan in Wyoming—where 40 percent of the existing population resides—only calls for a 0.6 mile perimeter for non-surface occupancy, or horizontal drilling. Both the noise and drilling itself impacts the sage grouse, causing the birds to abandon these crucial areas, known as “leks.”