VALE (AP) — It could take a few years to rehabilitate the habitat of sage grouse after wildfires in eastern Oregon this summer, say officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that it is initiating its formal status review of the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act by requesting information from a broad array of state and federal agencies and tribes.
The effort to conserve greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitat is a complicated process that encompasses 11 states, six federal agencies and numerous non-governmental groups.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Wild-horse fertility control and sage-grouse habitat conservation are among top priorities in the proposed $1.1 billion budget for the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The best time to fight a wildfire is before it starts. Reducing fuels reduces fires. There’s less threat to the public, firefighters, trees, wildlife and property. So why is the U.S. government planning to spend less on reducing fuels for wildfire?
GRANTS PASS — Hoping to keep sage grouse, at right, from the endangered species list, ranchers in Eastern Oregon are working on a first-in-the-nation deal that would lay out voluntary steps to reduce the harm to sage grouse on 10 million acres of federal grazing lands. “The livestock industry knows this is an important issue, and wants to be in position to somewhat control our destiny,” said John O’Keefe, a Warner Valley rancher and sage grouse coordinator for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association.
