Mesa County takes step toward suit over grouse listing ( Colorado )

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species.

Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse.

Mesa County decided to follow with its own notice of intent, which Commissioner Scott McInnis said is a step before officially jumping into the legal fray but publicly expresses the county’s displeasure with the listing.

Commissioner Rose Pugliese said counties designated critical habitat for the sage-grouse have already made efforts to allow the bird’s population to grow. She’s worried the listing will threaten hunting, grazing and oil and gas development opportunities.

“We stand united with Gunnison County and the other counties listed” as critical habitat, Pugliese said. “We were opposed to the listing, we’re still opposed to it, and it could potentially have an economic impact on Mesa County and the other counties.”

The state of Colorado has gone a step further than a notice and filed suit last week asking a judge to overrule the Gunnison sage-grouse listing.

Two environmental organizations have filed suit as well. While both suits ask for the threatened species listing to be tossed, the environmental groups want the listing to be replaced with an endangered species listing, while the state wants no listing at all.

For those wondering why?

Sage Grouse Rebellion
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304858104579262383209254934
March 11, 2014

Will Obama use two small birds to limit oil drilling in the West?

In partnership with green activists, the Department of Interior may attempt one of the largest federal land grabs in modern times, using a familiar vehicle—the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A record 757 new species could be added to the protected list by 2018. The two species with the greatest impact on private development are range birds—the greater sage grouse and the lesser prairie chicken, both about the size of a barnyard chicken. The economic stakes are high because of the birds’ vast habitat.

Interior is expected to decide sometime this month whether to list the lesser prairie chicken, which inhabits five western prairie states, as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Meantime, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service are considering land-use amendments to protect the greater sage grouse, which would lay the groundwork for an ESA listing next year.

The sage grouse is found in 11 western states—California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Most of the areas affected are federal lands routinely used for farming, ranching, mining, road building, water projects and oil and gas drilling.

However, much of the prairie chicken population and some sage grouse are on private property that could become subject to some of the most invasive private land-use rules and property acquisitions in the history of the protected-species law. The birds’ habitat includes an estimated 50 million to 100 million acres of federal and private land, according to the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Environmental groups have won victories by using a strategy called “sue and settle” under which groups propose species for protected status and then sue the federal government, which settles the lawsuit on terms favorable to the greens rather than fight. These settlements typically bypass a thorough review of the scientific evidence and exclude affected parties, such as industry and local communities.

And others:

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2015/feb/16/steamboat-briefs-business-owners-lobby-governor-ab/

According to Kent Vertrees, co-owner Steamboat Powdercats, the letter calls on the state to carry out meaningful conservation measures to ensure the greater sage grouse is not listed under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September.

“We want to make sure that Governor Hicklenlooper knows how important the iconic greater sage grouse is to our local business community in Routt County,” Vertrees said in a news release. “It’s an important part of our Western heritage and our economy. We want to see the bird protected, but we don’t want to see it listed under the Endangered Species Act.”

In a report released by ECONorwest in September, it was estimated visitors to the BLM sagebrush lands in the 11 western states with greater sage grouse habitat spent approximately $623 million within 50 miles of the recreation sites in 2013.

“As a local business community just getting back on our feet after the economic downturn, an endangered species listing would be another blow, and it simply doesn’t need to happen if we can protect and conserve the iconic bird’s habitat now,” Vertrees added.

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