sage grouse

Some say providing Teton County residents with natural gas could come at the cost of the local sage grouse – a bird whose populations have rapidly declined over the years. But, federal and state agencies say the harm can be mostly mitigated.

Wyoming is talking about the greater sage-grouse again: a polarizing topic that has been in conversation amongst western states over the last couple of decades. The federal government wants to expand the bird’s protected range, and the state is skeptical about that plan. So, state officials and locals recently put their heads together about it to craft their own plan.

The protection of greater sage grouse is in conversation again. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to update its protections this year, as the bird is considered a ‘sensitive species.’ But several conservation groups wrote the agency a letter saying it is still not enough.

The Wyoming Game & Fish Commission is allocating nearly $550,000 to eight local sage grouse working groups to fund projects and address issues and threats to the bird. Environmental and human impacts have caused a significant loss of habitat for sage grouse in several Western and Mountain West states in previous decades.

The Bureau of Land Management is once again reviewing land use as it’s related to the sage grouse. This is the latest move to protect the bird as its numbers continue to dwindle, pushing to closer to an endangered species listing.

Proponents of the plans say herbicides will help fight invasive species while opponents are concerned it will negatively impact small bird and animal habitats.

It’s no secret that sage grouse numbers have been declining in the West for decades. Once numbering in the millions, the ecologically critical species has faltered due to habitat loss from wildfire, drought, and human development. There's not much research, though, into the role of hunting greater and Gunnison sage grouse across the West.

This spring, Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists and trained volunteers headed out into the state's sagebrush seas to count the number of male sage grouse displaying at their traditional breeding grounds, known as leks. This year, the department reported lek attendance was down 13 percent since 2020.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently partnered with a group of high schoolers from Cody to plant seedlings for sage-grouse habitat. The students, who were part of The Buffalo Bill Center of the West's Youth Advisory Board, were interested in finding a conservation project that would help preserve the Greater Sage-Grouse population, so they turned to the BLM's Cody office.

The Bureau of Land Management fell short in analyzing how oil and gas drilling in parts of Montana and Wyoming would impact the greater sage grouse, a species that's suffered an 80% population decline across its range since 1965.