Montana's new management plan for sage grouse 'visionary,' biologist says

[BuzzH]

I think its pretty tough most of the time to blame just one thing, which is also the reason why theres no silver bullet to fix it. I've found its usually a combination of things.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 01-24-2003 21:33: Message edited by: BuzzH ]</font>

 

[Michaelr]

most areas it is a habitat problem, clean farming, leaving no cover is a huge problem around here. You can drive for miles and never see anything but bare dirt, there used to be alot of ditches and corners with cover now its bare.

On our ranch it is hawks and foxes, there is no agriculture within 25 miles, our place is not over grazed, but there are alot of hawks, foxes, skunks, weasels, coyotes, magpies, crows, ect ect.
maybe now that fur prices are coming back we might see a few more sage chickens.

 

[Ithaca 37]

I can show you hundreds of square miles of what used to be good sage grouse habitat a few years ago (pretty good for chukars, too) that has burned so hot from the cheat grass that the sage is gone. It burned to the ground and will take forty years to grow back two feet tall, if it doesn't burn again. The cheat grass is the culprit and that moved in because of overgrazing. That's the biggest factor I see in this puzzle---lack of good habitat caused by grazing.

Ya gotta wonder what all those predators are eating since the sage grouse and ground squirrels are mostly gone. All I hear about is how many predators there are, but there doesn't seem to be anything for them to eat!

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 01-24-2003 22:31: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>

 

[Michaelr]

thats why the blue birds that used to nest under the window of our cabin are gone, thats why there are very few ground squirrels, thats why there are very few robins, song birds, sage hens, the snowshoe hares we used to see all the time are gone, it will probably cycle back around when the predators crash, but it is the way it is right now.

 

[Ithaca 37]

The main reason we don't have as many ground squirrels where I hunt is cheat grass has taken over and there's just no nutrition in it after June, so the young squirrels just don't survive as well.

 

[Wally Dog]

Ithica,
Give me a break, fewer ground squirrels.
Where and when do you go looking for them.
They ain't out during chukar season.
They have always gone into summer hibernation in mid July after everything dries up. I'll make you deal, you bring 1000 rounds of 22 ammo and I'll make sure you shoot yours and start asking for some of mine in EARLY April within 60 minutes of Boise.

 

[Ithaca 37]

WD, I know plenty of places to hunt squirrels within 60 miles of Boise, but there aren't as many of them (squirrels) as there were 10 years ago. This can all be verified by the Birds of Prey biologists, who keep track of squirrel habitat because it's tied into birds of prey studies on what the birds eat. As a matter of fact, there was an extensive article about declining squirrel habitat and it's effect on birds of prey in the Statesman last summer.

I hunt squirrels every spring and keep pretty close track of where they're still doing well.