A report commissioned by Pew Charitable Trusts predicts that sage grouse will be extinct in 100 years and could be gone from the Powder River Basin in 30 years, if their decline continues at its current rate. The Garton report, as it’s known, was released last week in the “Environment and Energy Daily,” an online magazine. Wyoming Sage Grouse Coordinator Tom Christiansen says he has concerns with the study--not the method or the analysis, but its conclusion that conservation efforts aren’t working.
“Maybe something like climate change is going to trump all of us,” Christiansen says. “But to say that the conservation efforts out there are not working or won’t work on their own, no, it’s too early to tell that.”
Christiansen says that while the study’s data accurately looks at the sage grouse population cycles going back to 1965, it bases some of its conclusions on data taken only since 2007 when grouse numbers steeply plummeted.
Wildlife biologist Erik Molvar with WildEarth Guardians says the Garton study does take into account the bird’s cycles going back to 1965.
Maybe something like climate change is going to trump all of us.
“Well, I think Mr. Christiansen misunderstand the Garton study,” Molvar says. “So it’s looking at all the peaks, all the valleys, all the population cycles up and down. And all those population cycles are fed into the model.”
Molvar says the Garton study is a warning of what could happen if Western states don’t step up conservation efforts for the grouse.
