Biologists: Wildfires Impact Sage Grouse
TWIN FALLS, Idaho – In the aftermath of this summer’s Murphy Complex Fire in southwest Idaho, state biologists studying damage to sage grouse habitat drew a quick conclusion: The fires dealt another blow to a species already in trouble.
The fires, started by lightning in July and responsible for charring more than 1,000 square miles of rangeland, destroyed about 75 grouse mating grounds in prime habitat, said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
In response, the department last week issued emergency changes to grouse hunting rules for the fall, closing the season in some regions in the state, limiting hunting from Sept. 15-21 on Magic Valley hunting lands north of the Snake River and capping the bag limit to one bird per day.
But the fires are just one factor cutting into sage grouse numbers across Idaho and the West. Researchers say habitat loss from oil and gas drilling, urban development and grazing have destroyed the sage brush rangelands preferred by the chicken-sized birds. Also, more researchers are suggesting that West Nile virus should be added to the list of threats.
The department closed hunting last year in the far southwest corners of the state last season because of the virus. So far this year, state officials monitoring the virus in the bird have recorded one confirmed virus-related death, from a bird tested on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.
Parrish says sage grouse populations are down by 50 percent in the northern Magic Valley, an area untouched this season by fires. But he says the virus may be a logical explanation for the decline.
Sage grouse are particularly vulnerable to the virus, with research showing it is fatal in about 90 percent of infected birds.
Despite the shrinking numbers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2005 rejected a petition to have the bird listed as threatened or endangered. A lawsuit pending before a federal judge in Idaho seeks to force the government to reconsider. During a hearing in Boise in July, environmentalists argued the decision to keep the sage grouse off the protected list was unduly influenced by political meddling by White House appointees who discarded scientific research on the species.
A ruling from U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill is pending.
First identified by Lewis and Clark, the sage grouse once inhabited the vast sagebrush and rangeland of the West, stretching from Washington and eastern California across Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and east to North Dakota and Kansas. In the early 1800s, sage grouse populations were pegged at 1.1 million across its historic range, but in recent decades it has dwindled to fewer than 500,000, according to some state and federal estimates.
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Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com