Two environmental groups have given a 60-day notice of the intent to sue to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Forest Service (USFS), National Parks Service (NPS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) over the decline in the subpopulation of the Gunnison sage-grouse.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Western Watersheds Project (WWP) argue in their letter the sage grouse population has dramatically declined and the agencies have violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) “by failing to ensure the adoption and continuing implementation of the Gunnison Basin Candidate Conservation Agreement (Gunnison Basin CCA) and its attendant Biological Opinion (BiOp).”
The Gunnison Basin CCA was developed in 2013 following USFWS’ proposal to list the Gunnison sage-grouse as endangered and designate critical habitat. The CCA authorizes the development, recreation and grazing within the Gunnison sage-grouse habitat in the Gunnison Basin of Colorado.
“The conservation measures in the agreement have never been adequate to protect this species, especially now in light of the species’ shocking decline range-wide,” said Talasi Brooks, a staff attorney with WWP. “It’s never been clearer that Gunnison sage-grouse need enforceable protections based upon modern science.”
Gunnison sage-grouse
The Gunnison sage-grouse is similar to the Greater sage-grouse but is about one-third smaller and males have more distinct, white barring on their tail feathers, and longer, more dense plumes on their necks.
According to the Gunnison Basin CCA, there are seven separate populations of Gunnison sage-grouse located in Colorado and Utah, with the majority of the birds in the Gunnison Basin. Approximately 80 percent of the land area in Gunnison County is federal land.
There are approximately 593,000 total acres of occupied sage grouse habitat in the Gunnison Basin, and 395,000 acres of federal land is covered under the Gunnison Basin CCA. The 395,000 acres of land occupied by the Gunnison sage-grouse territory are under the USFS, NPS, and BLM management.
About 17,250 people live in Gunnison County with the majority of those residing in the cities of Gunnison and Crested Butte.
The environmental groups cite surveys conducted by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) of male birds on their leks, or mating grounds, in the Gunnison Basin, showing 363 males in 2019—down from 848 in 2013 when the Gunnison Basin CCA was established. “Based on this data, the estimated Gunnison sage-grouse population for the Gunnison Basin declined from 3,149 in 2013 to only 1,667 in 2020,” according to the letter.
The drought in the winter of 2017-2018, followed by drought in the spring, resulted in the forbs flowering less and smaller amounts of insects for the Gunnison sage-grouse. This was followed by an abnormally cold winter with dense snowpack covering the sagebrush, which is their primary food source in the winter. The back-to-back weather events contributed to the decline in the bird’s population.
Gunnison Basin CCA
The implementation of the Gunnison CCA has been a collaboration of several groups, including private landowners and government agencies.
In a 2010 status review by the USFWS, the agency found threats to the Gunnison sage-grouse on federal land in three areas: development; recreation; and grazing.
The CCA implemented setbacks from known sage-grouse leks of 0.6 miles with no surface disturbance for project-level implementation such as fences or sagebrush habitat treatments. To complement protections within the 0.6-mile buffer, the CCA also prohibits surface-disturbing activities within four miles of known leks to minimize the footprint of any project and habitat fragmentation.
Within the Gunnison Basin CCA, the USFWS found the highest threats to the sage grouse occurred with development. The biggest threats included the 1,274 miles of road within four miles of grouse leks in the Gunnison Basin, “and fragmentation from roads are a significant threat to Gunnison sage-grouse now and in the foreseeable future.” Consequently, roads in BLM and USFS areas implement seasonal road closures from March 15 through May 15 to reduce disturbances to breeding sage grouse.
The CCA also acknowledges that powerlines are a moderate to severe problem with “68 percent of the Gunnison Basin population area within 4.3 miles of an electrical transmission line and is potentially influenced by avian predators utilizing the additional perches.” The USFWS expects that impacts from existing powerlines and distribution of new powerlines associated with residential development will continue at least through 2050. In addition to powerlines creating a perch for predators, fences also create a problem for the Gunnison Basin population, and there are currently 960 miles of fences in the territory.
Regarding grazing, the USFS acknowledges not all livestock grazing results in habitat degradation and noted that “no studies have documented (positively or negatively) the actual impacts of grazing at the population level.” It also acknowledges damage from overgrazing is “likely being exacerbated by intense browsing of woody species by wild ungulates in portions of the Gunnison Basin.”
The WWP and CBD letter primarily focuses on livestock grazing, stating the BiOp does not adequately address conservation measures. The letter cites cheatgrass’s presence due to grazing, which contributes to the decline of the sage-grouse population and the decline of sagebrush, perennial grasses, and forbs, which are critical for their survival.
“The BiOp’s analysis of grazing’s impacts on Gunnison sage-grouse is woefully inadequate, underestimating the impacts of grazing and ignoring the best available science indicating that one out of every six encounters with livestock likely results in partial nest depredation,” the letter states.
In 2018, Gunnison County, the Gunnison Stockgrowers Association, the states of Colorado and Utah and Utah’s San Juan County lost their case in federal district court when a judge ruled to keep the Gunnison sage-grouse on the endangered species list.
Rather than appealing the ruling, Gunnison County worked with USFWS on a recovery plan to include the efforts the county has taken previously.
The draft recovery plan sets a recovery target of 3,669 birds in the Gunnison Basin population for at least seven out of nine consecutive years, and a total of 770 birds in four other satellite populations.
The recovery goal is less than the number of birds when the Gunnison sage-grouse was listed as threatened in 2014, which was 3,978. This has garnered criticism from WWP and CBD. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
