Podcast

Music/Intro:  This is a podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior

Announcer:  The Department of the Interior announced Friday that it will expand efforts with state, local and tribal partners to map lands that are vital to the survival of the greater sage-grouse while guiding and managing new conventional and renewable energy projects to reduce impacts on the species.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made the announcement in a teleconference, the following are his remarks.

Secretary Salazar:  Let me say that the decision that we are announcing today and the actions that we will be taking concerning the greater sage-grouse are based on the fundamental fact of the condition concerning the sage grouse.  We have seen a 90 percent decline in the population of sage-grouse from a century ago.  That’s a 90 percent decline in the population from a century ago.  

In addition, we have seen a 50 percent loss of its habitat from its historic level.  That 50 percent decline in its historic habitat also is accompanied with a fragmentation of that habitat which has put the sage-grouse in peril. 

The current sagebrush habitat is currently estimated at approximately 160 million acres – that is about half of the historic range.  And projections for the greater sage-grouse suggest that the population will decline across the species’ range in the coming years, resulting in scattered sage-grouse populations in the years ahead. 

So, we need to find smart ways of protecting habitat while also developing much-needed energy resources and allowing the continued use of our Western lands.

Frankly, it is the states and the Western part of the United States that have led the way in developing the right kind of strategies to confront this challenge.  Thanks in large measure to state conservation efforts in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and other states that we have seen sage-grouse populations now at a point where they are relatively stable over the last decade.  However, the scientists and the comprehensive peer-reviewed study undertaken by 38 federal, state, and private scientists suggests that the long-term prognosis for the sage grouse is not good.

That’s why we must – and we will - expand our support for local and state conservation efforts.  Because the greater sage-grouse is now a candidate species, which is what we are announcing today, the Service, the Bureau of Land Management and other federal partners will have programs to provide technical and financial assistance for the conservation of the candidate species on private lands. 

The BLM’s expanded efforts to protect the sage-grouse will also help ensure that energy production, recreational access, other uses of federal lands including ranching and grazing will continue in ways that limit the impacts on the bird.  We must, for example, site renewable and conventional energy projects strategically and away from the core sage grouse habitats. 


The smarter we are in planning on the front-end, the fewer conflicts and controversy we will have on the back end – that’s just common sense.


So our decision today is basically that the listing in warranted.  But the listing is precluded at this time because of other priority listings within the Fish and Wildlife Service.  At the end of the day, my hope, as Secretary of Interior, is that through the smart action that we take in partnership with the states and with private land owners that we will never have to list the sage-grouse as a threatened and endangered species. 

Announcer: This has been a podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior.