By Coral Davenport
Washington — The Trump administration (click here) on Thursday detailed its plan to open nine million acres to drilling and mining by stripping away protections for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that oil companies have long considered an obstacle to some of the richest deposits in the American West.
In one stroke, the action would open more land to drilling than any other step the administration has taken, environmental policy experts said. It drew immediate criticism from environmentalists while energy-industry representatives praised the move, saying that the earlier policy represented an overreach of federal authority.
“This is millions and millions of acres of Western land that stretch across the spine of this nation,” said Bobby McEnaney, an expert in Western land use at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “With this single action, the administration is saying: This landscape doesn’t matter. This species doesn’t matter. Oil and gas matter.”
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an association of independent oil and gas companies based in Denver, said in an email, “These plans will conserve the sage grouse without needlessly stifling economic activity.”...
In reviewing the report (click here) there is absolutely no evidence of a rebounding species.
The sample sizes from either 1965-2015 and 2005-2015 show a declining species number due to habitat loss. The reporting shows either a 2% to 2.1% decline every one of those years stated leading to approximately 66% drop in populations up to 2015. Sorry, but, no species short of an ant will rebound to a successful number of birds in three years.
The Trump Administration will cause the extinction of the Sage Grouse if it continues along this path.
Once extinct, who care then?
If the METHODOLOGY differs from state to state then there are reasons for it to differ. Trump is trying to say that since the methods of different then the information is faulty. "W"rong. There is no top down method that will work for every state in the country. California is different from Wyoming and they are different from Nevada.
The green color in the picture is historical territory of the grouse and it is diminished by at least 50%. The "scattered" appearance in the above map also indicates within the existing range there are disruptions that allows for continuity. So, the sage grouse is declining because OF THE EXISTING RANGE REMAINING there are significant areas of FRAGMENTATION. That fragmentation impacts on the bird and causes it to lose numbers needed to rebound.
Making claim that the existing REMAINING habitat can be FRAGMENTED MORE is pure idiocy and makes no sense at all. How is a species with fragmented and diminished quality and quantity of habitat going to rebound with more of the same?
