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Feds ordered to take another look at protecting sage grouse
Judge says 'best science' wasn't used in decision not to list the species
The federal government will have to reconsider protecting sage grouse after a federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a 2004 decision not to list the species as threatened or endangered.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review what he called a "tainted" decision by the Bush administration.
Winmill blamed the meddling of Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant interior secretary, who Winmill said kept the best scientists from direct involvement in the decision.
If the agency ultimately protects the sage grouse, it could have the impact on public land ranching that the listing of the spotted owl had on logging in the Pacific Northwest's old-growth forests in the late 1980s. It also could slow oil and gas development and affect utility transmission line placement and real estate development on the edge of cities like Boise.
The sage grouse is one of nearly a dozen species that depend on sagebrush, a defining feature of the Western landscape. About 50 percent of the sagebrush habitat has been replaced by farms and communities, intentionally removed on federal land or replaced by invasive species after frequent fires.
MacDonald, an engineer and a lawyer but not a biologist, rewrote the decision documents in 2004. She added scientific references to studies the agencies' biologists did not include, and she removed references to research done by sage grouse experts, including Idaho Department of Fish and Game's Jack Connelly of Pocatello and U.S. Geological Survey biologist Steve Knick of Boise.
After MacDonald's interference, the agency ruled that listing sage grouse as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act was not warranted.
"MacDonald had extensive involvement in the sage grouse listing decision, used her intimidation tactics in this case, and altered the 'best science' to fit a not-warranted decision," Winmill wrote.
Winmill also said Fish and Wildlife failed to adequately address the vast threats to sage grouse and their sagebrush habitat across the West, including oil and gas development, large range fires, livestock grazing and expanding transportation corridors.
The decision was left to a team of senior agency officials, not sage grouse biologists.
"First, the team was not comprised of experts on sage grouse habitat," Winmill wrote. "What did the expert panelists say specifically about sage grouse habitat and its 'rate' of decline? We don't know because their discussions were off-the-record."
Winmill's decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. Laird Lucas, chief attorney of Advocates for the West, which represented the environmental group, said conditions for sage grouse have gotten worse, especially because of the habitat degradation from oil and gas development in Wyoming, Utah and other states.
Range fires tied to climate change, like southern Idaho's 650,000-acre Murphy Complex, also have destroyed habitat, Lucas said. He hopes the decision will force the region to start developing a recovery plan for the sagebrush steppe habitat on which the sage grouse rely.
"I really think the sage grouse is going to help us face the future," Lucas said.
Sage grouse numbers suffered sharp declines in the early 1900s and after World War II. Since 1986, after two decades of consistent decline, the population of the birds in Idaho and several states had stabilized. But fires and development have continued to destroy the sagebrush steppes where the birds live.
Grazing and road-building have fragmented the remaining habitat so that sage grouse cannot migrate seasonally from summer to winter habitat.
Since the last population review in 2004, gas drillers have punched into some of the best sage grouse habitat left in the West - without being required to study the impacts on sage grouse and other species.
And West Nile virus has swept across the West, killing sage grouse all the way. Its impact on the population is just becoming known.
Judge says 'best science' wasn't used in decision not to list the species
The federal government will have to reconsider protecting sage grouse after a federal judge on Tuesday tossed out a 2004 decision not to list the species as threatened or endangered.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review what he called a "tainted" decision by the Bush administration.
Winmill blamed the meddling of Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant interior secretary, who Winmill said kept the best scientists from direct involvement in the decision.
If the agency ultimately protects the sage grouse, it could have the impact on public land ranching that the listing of the spotted owl had on logging in the Pacific Northwest's old-growth forests in the late 1980s. It also could slow oil and gas development and affect utility transmission line placement and real estate development on the edge of cities like Boise.
The sage grouse is one of nearly a dozen species that depend on sagebrush, a defining feature of the Western landscape. About 50 percent of the sagebrush habitat has been replaced by farms and communities, intentionally removed on federal land or replaced by invasive species after frequent fires.
MacDonald, an engineer and a lawyer but not a biologist, rewrote the decision documents in 2004. She added scientific references to studies the agencies' biologists did not include, and she removed references to research done by sage grouse experts, including Idaho Department of Fish and Game's Jack Connelly of Pocatello and U.S. Geological Survey biologist Steve Knick of Boise.
After MacDonald's interference, the agency ruled that listing sage grouse as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act was not warranted.
"MacDonald had extensive involvement in the sage grouse listing decision, used her intimidation tactics in this case, and altered the 'best science' to fit a not-warranted decision," Winmill wrote.
Winmill also said Fish and Wildlife failed to adequately address the vast threats to sage grouse and their sagebrush habitat across the West, including oil and gas development, large range fires, livestock grazing and expanding transportation corridors.
The decision was left to a team of senior agency officials, not sage grouse biologists.
"First, the team was not comprised of experts on sage grouse habitat," Winmill wrote. "What did the expert panelists say specifically about sage grouse habitat and its 'rate' of decline? We don't know because their discussions were off-the-record."
Winmill's decision came in a lawsuit filed by the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. Laird Lucas, chief attorney of Advocates for the West, which represented the environmental group, said conditions for sage grouse have gotten worse, especially because of the habitat degradation from oil and gas development in Wyoming, Utah and other states.
Range fires tied to climate change, like southern Idaho's 650,000-acre Murphy Complex, also have destroyed habitat, Lucas said. He hopes the decision will force the region to start developing a recovery plan for the sagebrush steppe habitat on which the sage grouse rely.
"I really think the sage grouse is going to help us face the future," Lucas said.
Sage grouse numbers suffered sharp declines in the early 1900s and after World War II. Since 1986, after two decades of consistent decline, the population of the birds in Idaho and several states had stabilized. But fires and development have continued to destroy the sagebrush steppes where the birds live.
Grazing and road-building have fragmented the remaining habitat so that sage grouse cannot migrate seasonally from summer to winter habitat.
Since the last population review in 2004, gas drillers have punched into some of the best sage grouse habitat left in the West - without being required to study the impacts on sage grouse and other species.
And West Nile virus has swept across the West, killing sage grouse all the way. Its impact on the population is just becoming known.
