Questions about energy exploration/production

[Tom]

That's a good tact. Here's the real simple view. Control=Pinedale, Treatment=Mesa. Look at the map, Pinedale is full of water, Mesa is flat open country. I'd rather live in Pinedale myself, not Mesa. So, there may be an issue with the control, as you say, "if it is a control". That's why I"m thinking as soon as some deer died off in 2003 in Pinedale, for whatever reason, the Mesa deer moved in. I think I better read all the details sometime though.

I think the main problem is the roads in open country blow their cover. I bet if cover were put in for them, it would be a good fix. Nobody can even name a study where they show the effect of cover so far. What kind of field is this, wildlife management? There must be some studies on that.

Here's another question about studies in wildlife management. What kind of sage brush growth does it take to support sage grouse? Like mtmiller's example, the well pad wiped out that for a group he knew of. Well, if we knew how many sagebrush plants, how far apart, how far from water, we could plant some right around somewhere, to help them relocate when a well pad comes in.

 

[Oak]

Habitat requirements are well known for sage-grouse. Read Connelly et al. 2000.

What kind of cover do you want to "put in"?

 

[mtmiller]

Tom, I know you said you didn't care about sage-grouse, but here is the Connelly paper Oak mentioned.

http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov/Docs/Sage_Grouse_Guidelines.pdf

Page 974 talks about energy development. Here, I will try to paste it from the .pdf

Mining–energy development. Effects of mining,
oil, and gas developments on sage grouse populations
are not well known (Braun 1998). These activities
negatively impact grouse habitat and populations
over the short term (Braun 1998), but
research suggests some recovery of populations following
initial development and subsequent reclamation
of the affected sites (Eng et al. 1979, Tate et
al. 1979, Braun 1986). In Colorado, sage grouse
were displaced by oil development and coal-mining
activities, but numbers returned to pre-disturbance
levels once the activities ceased (Braun 1987,
Remington and Braun 1991). At least 6 leks in
Alberta were disturbed by energy development and
4 were abandoned (Aldridge 1998). In Wyoming,
female sage grouse captured on leks disturbed by
natural gas development had lower nest-initiation
rates, longer movements to nest sites, and different
nesting habitats than hens captured on undisturbed
leks (Lyon 2000). Sage grouse may repopulate an
area following energy development but may not
attain population levels that occurred prior to
development (Braun 1998). Thus, short-term and
long-term habitat loss appears to result from energy
development and mining (Braun 1998).

 

[mtmiller]

Here is some additional info from the Montana Sage Grouse Mgmt Plan

http://fwp.state.mt.us/fwppaperapps/wildthings/SGFinalPlan.pdf

Check out pages 59-62 in particular.

There is also some road info if you want to look into it.

 

[Tom]

I said I didn't care about them much, but I would send money to have some sage bush put in or put it in myself, I said that too. Thanks a million for the info.! Its great info.