Zinke undercuts BLM sage grouse conservation plan

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Helen Harbin, ONDA Board Member

“I connect with Oregon’s high desert through my feet, my eyes, my sense of smell, and all the things I hear. Getting out there is a whole body experience.” Supporting ONDA, Helen says, not only connects her with wild landscapes, but is also a good investment. “I felt like if I gave them $20, they might squeeze $23 out of it.”

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Sarah Graham, Sage Society Member

“I contribute to ONDA monthly because it adds up to a larger annual gift than what I’d be able to comfortably afford if I were to do a simple one-time donation annually. I’m able to give more to ONDA this way and have greater impact which is important to me, and my dog Polly.”

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Wind and Birds in Quaking Aspen

As ONDA members and supporters know, Greater sage-grouse are majestic birds that thrive in the sagebrush and native bunchgrass habitats at the heart of the high desert.

Sage-grouse population declines were first noted in the mid-1990s. Efforts to reverse decades of harmful impacts to their ecosystem culminated in 2015 with the announcement of the Bureau of Land Management’s comprehensive sage-grouse management plans. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s recent order stands to derail and set back this unprecedented effort.

The BLM’s 2015 plan for Oregon worked in concert with the companion State of Oregon plan to protect habitat on both public and private lands. And despite the long, successful stakeholder collaboration here in Oregon the Trump Administration has begun tearing down the BLM plans.

Here are some of ONDA’s concerns and objections to Zinke’s recommendations:

The Secretarial Order doesn’t follow the best available science.

Secretary Zinke’s order recommends moving away from a habitat-management model for sage-grouse to one based on population objectives, contrary to nearly unanimous scientific input advising habitat protection. Adopting a population-based approach doesn’t acknowledge the highly cyclical nature of sage-grouse populations and it fails to address habitat loss and degradation as the primary factor of population declines.

The best way forward for sage-grouse is a consistent range-wide approach, driven by broad local input, not the piecemeal management that this order will create.

The Department of the Interior is touting how these changes will provide “flexibility to states.” In reality sage-grouse don’t care about state boundaries or politically motivated handouts to industry. What sage-grouse need is connected, intact habitat and that comes from a consistent management approach. Managing that habitat on a large scale is basic conservation biology. Even if we can maintain strong conservation here in Oregon it will do little good if sage-grouse habitat in neighboring states is severely impacted.

The Secretarial Order recommends stripping protections from the very best habitat areas.

BLM’s 2015 plans identified the “best of best” sage-grouse habitat. Two of these areas, known as Sagebrush Focal Areas – or SFAs, are here in Oregon. Secretary Zinke’s order suggests removing the SFA designations to allow more “flexibility” for mining, oil and gas leasing and infrastructure development to happen in these important areas. Pretending that more development in SFA’s won’t impact sage-grouse is akin to someone putting a smoke-belching factory in your living room and saying you won’t notice a thing.

The current plan isn’t broken, and it needs time to work.

Although far from perfect, the BLM’s 2015 plans are a meaningful step toward sage-grouse recovery, and shouldn’t be undercut just as they are beginning to take effect. Without the complete and robust implementation of the plans, sage-grouse habitat and population recovery will once again be in jeopardy.

The Secretarial Order prioritizes the interests of the mining and oil and gas industries, while the 2015 plan had broad, bipartisan support from constituents across the West.

Three out of four voters (76%) who live near sage-grouse habitat areas believe it is important to protect sage-grouse habitat. This includes 68% of Republicans, 78% of Independents and 95% of Democrats.[1] Both Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Republican Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming, who co-chair a federal-state sage grouse task force, told Secretary Zinke they opposed moving the plan away from a scientifically supported, habitat-based management model.

Scrapping the BLM sage-grouse plans throws years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars out the window.

The 2015 plan came with more than $750 million in commitments from the government and outside groups to conserve land and restore the bird’s habitat, and an incredible amount of time and energy from hundreds of agency staff, diverse stakeholders and countless volunteers.

In just the past year and a half, ONDA volunteers and staff have spent more than six months in eastern Oregon monitoring sage-grouse breeding grounds and habitat, and we are just one of dozens of stakeholders invested in the development and implementation of the sage-grouse recovery efforts in Oregon. Multiply that across a decade and throughout the 11 states with sage-grouse habitat, and the total effort devoted to sage-grouse recovery is monumental.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Oregon’s Governor and Senators should push back against this ill-advised order by Secretary Zinke because it will endanger sage-grouse populations. To do that, they need to hear from constituents who value a healthy sagebrush-steppe ecosystem. As an ONDA member, volunteer, or supporter, your connection to sagebrush habitat makes you an authoritative voice. Be a champion for the sage-grouse by telling your elected officials why you support strong sage-grouse conservation.