WildEarth Guardians

Monday, March 20, 2006
Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse in Trouble: Conservation Organizations Push for Endangered Species Act Protection

Conservation groups from across the Western United States filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency's failure to determine whether the Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act
Contact: WildEarth Guardians Advocates for the West

Santa Fe, NM - WildEarth Guardians and conservation groups from across the Western United States filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the agency’s failure to determine whether the Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act. The grouse, which once ranged across 11 western states, has been extirpated from over 90 percent of its historic range. The groups submitted a petition to list the grouse under the Endangered Species Act over a year ago.

“The Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse urgently needs the vital safety net that the Endangered Species Act provides,” stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. “Inaction may cause this rare bird to join the many other species that have gone extinct due to delays in listing,” Rosmarino continued.

Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse were once described as one of the most abundant birds in the West, and early pioneers reported flocks of thousands that “darkened the sky” when they flew. Their unique mating dance is one of the most awesome animal spectacles in the West. The grouse has suffered extensive declines in population and distribution. The coalition contends the species is in danger of becoming extinct unless it is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse occur in shrub-steppe, mountain shrub, and riparian habitats in the Intermountain West in the United States and British Columbia. Currently, only isolated populations of Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse exist in northern Washington, northeastern Nevada, western Idaho, south-central Idaho, southeastern Idaho, northern Utah, south-central Wyoming, northwestern Colorado and central British Columbia.

The Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse was first petitioned for Endangered Species Act listing in 1995, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the request despite dramatic declines, asserting that tracts of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), an agricultural land retirement program, provided sufficient quality habitat to ensure the species’ survival. Since it was denied listing, the grouse has vanished from the state of Montana, and threats continue to escalate. Changes to the CRP have allowed livestock grazing on enrolled lands, which harms grouse nesting and brood-rearing habitat. Although voluntary conservation plans have been developed by several states, since listing was denied, these plans have not been implemented, and in the case of Idaho (home to 80 percent of remaining Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse), have been abandoned completely.

“The Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse is another in a long list of residents of the Sagebrush Sea that face an uncertain future,” said Mark Salvo, director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign. “The sagebrush-steppe ecosystem is in tatters, and if the grouse could talk, it would tell us so.”

This grouse faces numerous other threats to its continued survival, including conversion of native habitat to agriculture, livestock grazing, mechanical and chemical “treatments” of habitat, application of pesticides, altered fire regimes, invasion of non-native species, both excessive and accidental hunting, inbreeding/reduced genetic fitness, and the placement and construction of roads and transmission lines.

Conservation groups joining WildEarth Guardians in today’s lawsuit over the Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse petition include: Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Native Ecosystems, the Larch Company, Oregon Natural Desert Association, the Sagebrush Sea Campaign, and Western Watersheds Project.

The Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse is one of several imperiled grouse species that WildEarth Guardians is seeking to protect as part of its “Western Grouse Project.” Other imperiled western grouse needing Endangered Species Act protection are the Greater Sage-Grouse, Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Gunnison Sage-Grouse, and the Mono Basin Sage-Grouse. These grouse face threats similar to those affecting Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse. Protecting these birds will also provide beneficial effects to the ecosystems they inhabit, and help recover other imperiled native species.

Additional contacts: Todd Tucci, Advocates for the West, 208-342-7024 Mark Salvo, Sagebrush Sea Campaign, 503-757-4221