12-11 SS Wally Juniper

 Juniper Removal Is Planned to Protect Sage Grouse Habitat. According to Richard Ward who is a Cane Springs rancher, grazing allotments in the Jim Sage Mountains area do not need juniper removal.  Federal and local officials are, however, looking to him and 19 other permittees for support in order for the project to move forward. Magic Valley.com news reports that Sam Lawry, Western Farm Bill coordinator for Pheasants Forever, an organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation, says the plan is to remove Utah juniper plants that encroach into sage brush habitat. Pheasants Forever is sponsoring the project.  Lawry claims that if juniper invades into vital sage grouse habitat, killing the sagebrush, it destroys the birds’ winter and summer food supply. Someone who is very knowledgeable about invasive species along with range management is the Idaho Farm Bureau’s range management specialist Wally Butler. “The theory is that Juniper imposes on sage brush. Sage grouse live in sage brush. Do you know anything about that? I know a whole bunch about that. Juniper is highly invasive. In fact when I was on that  governor’s task force, invasive species including the Juniper were considered as bad as things like cheat grass, Medusa head are things that we think of traditionally as invasives. Juniper will pretty rapidly invade sagebrush habitat and over the long haul, everything else dies out underneath it.”