Agencies Sage Grouse Management Plans Have Little or No Correlation to Actual Success

Last fall's announcement by the Department of Interior that a listing under the Endangered Species Act was not warranted for the greater sage grouse was a positive reflection of the intensive time and resources many Western ranchers have put towards improving sage grouse habitat. At the same time as that decision was also the implementation of restrictive resource management plans for the species. It is those resource management plans that the Public Lands Council as well as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association has concerns with the methodology used to create those plans.

PLC Executive Director Ethan Lane explains the issue with one of those onerous requirements.

Lane: "The grass height requirement and 7-inch stubble height requirement that we've seen throughout these resource management plans has been a topic we've discussed all year since these plans came out. It continues to be something we know will impact across the West in sage grouse country. What we've seen is a lot of new science in the last few months coming out showing that they just flat out got the science wrong on these plans. The methodology that was used is simply not an accurate way to quantify the correlation between that grass height in the early season and the survival of sage grouse nests. When you take the science and apply it properly, what you see is no correlation between those two things. So we want to make sure that this is implement properly and we feel like our getting on the record now and pointing it out and continuing to push it is a good first step."