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Wildlife: No Luck for Leks
An icon of the sage brush could soon go the way of the bison and the wolf on the Great Plains unless government agencies better balance the need for land conservation and energy development, according to new research out of the University of Montana.
The greater sage grouse, the largest grouse in North America, has declined in population by as much as 80 percent, mostly due to habitat loss. Today, the birds face new threats as thousands of wells, along with roads, power lines and other structures are being built for coal-bed natural gas development in the Powder River basin in Montana and Wyoming.
From 2000 to 2005, grouse numbers in mating areas—known as leks, where males perform elaborate courtship dances—located within energy development zones decreased by 60 percent compared to leks found outside development zones. Further, in developed areas only 38 percent of the leks remained active as opposed to 84 percent of the leks outside the zones.
"Industry biologists are saying that the population decline is drought-related," says University of Montana researcher Kevin Doherty, who presented his findings at the annual Wildlife Society conference in Arizona in the fall. "But that's not possible because the lack of rain was the same inside and outside the development area."
To minimize impacts on sage-grouse breeding, the Bureau of Land Management requires drilling operations to shut down from March through mid-June for operations that are within a two-mile radius of sage-grouse leks. However, Doherty says that research shows that current timing restrictions do not sufficiently protect sage-grouse populations and that the best habitat areas for sage grouse must be completely protected from roads, buried power lines and wastewater repositories.
There is still hope. "The best wintering areas have yet to be developed, so we still have time to act," says Doherty.
