Sage grouse mitigation

Idaho Cattle Association’s newsletter talked about a sage grouse mitigation framework so I called their Executive Dir. Wyatt Prescott to explain. “In the state’s Sage grouse plan, a portion of that plan was that the state of Idaho would also develop a mitigation framework. A company or entity that comes in on sage grouse important habitat does something that might impact that habitat, they would have a framework around how they would mitigate any of the damages they may or may not have caused. We are working with the state of Idaho to develop that framework. How we see cattle ranchers fitting in and why it is important for us to be involved is because ranchers on a good majority of private land across the state of Idaho. A lot of that is in core sage grouse habitat, in fact it's the key to a lot of sage grouse habitat because ranchers on the water. How we fit into all that mitigation is that the ranchers who are out there ranching are actually providing habitat for the bird because they're not going in and putting in houses etc. As well, the numbers one and two threats to the birds are wildfire and invasive species. Grazing is a tool used to control that.