Greater Sage Grouse on Lek : Prints Available
A male Greater sage grouse displays for a female during lekking, or mating season. Sage grouse carry on the elaborate mating ritual from around late March to early May, often in foul weather. Considered an umbrella, or keystone species for the health of the sagebrush ecosystem, the Greater sage grouse is "warranted, but precluded" from ESA protection.
Centrocercus urophasianus
This week the Bureau Of Land Management (BLM) announced their new strategy to implement a Greater Sage-grouse management plan across the ten state sagebrush ecosystem where the birds live. The plan adopts the core habitat strategy from Wyoming and includes Interim Management (IM) guidance for the full range of land use that impacts grouse –
Vegetation Management
Wildfire Emergency Stabilization and Burned Area Rehabilitation
Wildfire Suppression and Fuels Management
Rights of way for facilities such as roads, powerlines, pipelines and wind farms
Leasable minerals, such as coal, oil and gas
Locatable minerals, such as gold, silver and copper
Saleable minerals, such as sand, stone and gravel
Grazing
Recreation
Travel Management
Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Control and Management
Wild Horse and Burro Management
Realty Actions, such as land exchanges, transfers and sales; and
Vegetation and Resources Monitoring
(more…)
