2-11 IAN Cattle and Sage Grouse
Cattle and sage grouse. My bosses wife, Susan Allen, who is admittedly a pro cattle person, sent me an email that said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife admits sage grouse have disappeared from wildlife refuges where cattle have been removed: Lake County, in southeast Oregon, has 120 known leks, or places where sage grouse gather to attract mating females.
Craig Foster, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Lakeview-based biologist, said trend counts are done on 16 leks three times a year while the remaining leks are visited on an alternating basis every five years. He said population studies consider such variables as weather in determining the rate of change. Jeffrey Dillion, endangered special division manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Portland office, said Lake County’s Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge had three leks that each drew 125 or more male sage grouse in the early 2000s, but no longer exist. Although Hart Mountain has been cattle-free for 23 years, he said sage grouse numbers have declined. Despite the larger number of predator birds, such as ravens, hawks and eagles, he said FWS will only consider making changes to factors that enhance predator predation, such as removing posts where birds can observe and attack sage grouse.
