My old friend CJ Hadley, long-time publisher of Range Magazine has done another great service to our industry by publishing her newest Special Report, this one on sage grouse. It’s an insert in her Summer edition of Range Magazine and highlights the most recent attempt by environmental extremists to use the Endangered Species Act as a club to whack Westerners over the head and steal their land.
According to Carolyn Dufurrena, the lead author of CJ’s Special Report, “FWS says that to protect the sage grouse from extinction, the minimum effective population range-wide is 5,000 mature birds, with 500 breeding adults per region. The current estimated population for Greater Sage Grouse (spread over several western states) is between 350,000 and 535,000 birds, which is 70 to 107 times greater than the ‘minimum effective population.’ At the current rate of decline of 1.4 percent per year, it would take 300 years for the population to dwindle to the minimum effective population of 5,000 birds. Is that endangered? It doesn’t sound like it.”
In the face of numbers like that, it is hard for us in the ag community not to speculate that something else besides “saving” the specie is afoot in the endless string of lawsuits being filed by the legal behemoths of the environmental community. According to the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, “The Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are actively involved in more than 200 lawsuits and legal actions concerning the ESA.” Two things are in fact afoot. First, groups from the Defenders of Wildlife for the wolves to the Wildlife Federation, Wildlife Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity for the spotted owl to the sage grouse, are, excuse the pun, feathering their own nest. They raise money by suing the government in order to save something from extinction, whether or not it’s true, then get the government to pay them back for their attorney fees. Crazy, especially when folks like MFBF join lawsuits to defend against this silliness but get nothing for our efforts. Only plaintiffs can claim attorney fees under federal law.
The second, yet most important thing, I believe motivates leaders of the environmental movement to file so many lawsuits in the West is their desire to control our land and water. Many believe the real purpose behind the sage grouse suit is to stop oil and gas development. I’ve met and visited with many leaders in the environmental community over the last 20 years and few give a fig about whatever critter of the day they are seeking to save. If they did, there are better, more efficient and cost effective ways to protect a species. If your goal is to gain power and influence over the rest of us and get paid to do it, they may be smarter than they seem.
Any bird that looks and tastes like chicken and builds its nest on the ground is easy pickings and a pretty popular menu item for most predators. You’d think then that the feds would target predators like coyotes, ravens, and magpies, to protect sage grouse but if you did, you’d be wrong. The villain, just like always in the endless western drama written by the environmental movement, produced and directed by the federal government, and underwritten with our own tax dollars is of course us. The theory is that less human activity will result in more sage grouse.
Like most of what passes for government environmental policy in the West, the whole thing is upside down.
Sage grouse populations were pretty sparse going into the 1900s, then along came the settlements in Montana, Wyoming and the other western states. When you’re raising domestic animals like cattle and sheep, predators can be a problem, so farmers and ranchers tried to control them, at least around the ranch and farm. Little surprise that sage grouse populations increased dramatically around farms and ranches where there were more people and fewer predators. But when has the federal government and their pals in the environmental community ever let facts get in the way of spending your tax dollars in the dumbest way possible?
The good news is we’ve held our own pretty good over the years in spite of the deep pockets of the people who routinely challenge our way of life and we have an opportunity to do so again. Go to http://www.mfbf.org to find out how.
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