5-16 SS Sage Grouse

 About a year ago, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced a plan to shut down all sage grouse hunting in the eastern portion of the state citing environmental reasons. In Idaho (and throughout the rest of the bird's range) seasons and limits have been trimmed in sage grouse hunts because populations have declined over about the last 10 years. Not surprisingly, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is working to meet a court-imposed listing deadline, for its efforts on sage-grouse conservation. A lot of the BLM management details have come under fire by Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson as his spokesperson Nikki Watts tells us. One issue is the BLM budget and the way they are spending to save sage grouse. Another is BLM resistance to cattle grazing which Simpson claims to result in wildfires. “Congressman Simpson wants to make sure this investment will actually improve sage-grouse habitat and prevent the species from being listed in 2015, which would be devastating across the west.  Now more than ever we need to see a return on this investment, not just wasting this funding on planning exercises that don’t help us reach our goal. Simpson criticized BLM’s focus on limiting existing uses of BLM land, like grazing and recreation, in order to protect sage-grouse, rather than focusing on the primary threats to the species. “ He said: As we all know after the last fire season, the greatest threat to sage grouse is wildfire. Two million acres of priority sage grouse habitat burned in wildfires.  But as BLM focuses on sage grouse, it seems that the agency is looking mostly at limiting existing uses rather than controlling invasives like cheat grass and preventing wildfires.”