Endangered Species

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Colorado, Endangered Species
Endangered!
January 28, 2013 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Brooke Palmer, a seasonal trapper with the Colorado Division of Wildlife holds a female Gunnison Sage-grouse. The grouse was trapped and collared for relocation to “seed” a satellite lek outside of the Gunnison Basin.

It’s been a long wait for a Gunnison Sage-grouse (GuS-g) listing decision and the Jan. 10 US Fish and Wildlife News Release didn’t surprise anyone close to the issue. The Service officially proposed listing the Gunnison Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the News Release, the USFWS applauded local partners and agencies – and rightfully so, Gunnison formed a GuS-g working group years ago, bringing together the entire extended community where grouse habitat exists. Ranchers, conservation groups, Western State College, land managers, and government agencies are on the same page and managing the grouse as if they were already listed. Sisk-A-Dee is managing the public viewing blind and special events like the Gunnison Sage-grouse Festival so people actually have an opportunity to see and learn about the grouse.The ESA is a powerful tool and it’s not easy to get a species listed – there’s a long waiting list of “Warranted But Precluded” species deserving of ESA protection. But there are only 4,000 or so GuS-g’s left in the world, mostly in the Gunnison Basin, literally all of the eggs in one basket, so they had to be listed. (more…)
Endangered Species, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Wyoming
Yellowstone Grizzlies
May 31, 2012 | Permalink | 38 Comments

Grizzly Sow With Cubs : Prints Available

"Quad mom", a Yellowstone grizzly sow who had four cubs in 2010, rests on a hillside with the two surviving cubs, now sub-adults. I had just watched these rather large bears breast feed in the sage. They'll be on their own soon and the sow will mate again.

I just returned from two weeks in Yellowstone National Park, where I was working on my Sage Spirit book project. I was mostly focused on grizzly bears that are in the lower elevation sagebrush flats and meadows in spring. As summer heats up, it’s more difficult to find grizzlies as they move higher. I visited “Quad mom” every day for the first week, observing the sow and her two surviving, and nearly grown cubs foraging in the sagebrush on Swan Lake Flats for hours each day. The bears would rock back and forth as they pulled on roots and dug for bugs, bulbs, rodents – anything to satisfy an omnivorous appetite. They spent a couple of days on a bison carcass across the meadow a half mile distant. I only saw the sow and sub-adult cubs one more time after they ran to the forest one evening. Maybe she sent the cubs out on their own and prepared to mate? We’re fortunate to be able to observe these noble creatures – long may they roam! (more…)
Endangered Species, Energy, Sagebrush Sea
Seeing Grouse
April 9, 2012 | Permalink | 4 Comments

Greater Sage Grouse Male Display : Prints Available

A male greater sage grouse inflates his chest to impress a female during the spring mating season. Grouse use the same "lek" for mating throughout their lifespan and are severely threatened by oil and gas industrialization and habitat fragmentation.

I wrote this article two years ago when Secretary Salazar announced that Greater Sage-grouse are “warranted, but precluded” from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Greater and Gunnison Sage-grouse mate on leks in the sagebrush ecosystem from late March into early May.

Seeing Grouse

“The only good place for a Sage Grouse to be listed is on the menu of a French bistro. It does not deserve federal protection, period.” Congressman Jason Chaffetz (UT-03).

Sitting in a cold, drafty blind on a moonless April morning, it’s so dark that I can’t see the walls that will keep me hidden from Greater sage grouse. The stillness and quiet are pure, the stars like diamonds. I woke at 2:30 for the privilege of a few hours with these iconic western birds – birds that are getting a lot of attention these days.

During the wait for grouse and light I quiet my body, but my mind doesn’t follow. My fatigue-addled state yields a stream of consciousness like a sleepless night with senses alert and thoughts shifting rapidly – “my toes are cold, there’s a breeze – I hope it doesn’t get windy, coffee would be nice.” I think about the buildup to the listing decision and the tin badge politicians carrying on about jobs and energy, what the bird means to so many people and to Western wildlife with their need for expanses of unbroken sage. I reflect on the migrating pronghorn heading back to Grand Teton National Park, the notion that a National Park means the animals are protected inside an imaginary border, yesterday’s gray wolf stalking 1,000 elk stacked up for migration, and my new friends, Buddy and Rick, who traveled all the way from Florida to see and photograph this special bird. I chuckle because I still can’t see a damn thing. (more…)
Endangered Species
Night Work In Costa Rica
January 12, 2012 | Permalink | 4 Comments

Las Baulas National Park Office at Playa Grande Pacific Coast, Costa Rica

In the oddest of circumstances, I couldn’t imagine that we’d be watching Hangover II with strangers at a national park office on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast in the middle of the night. But there we were, laughing out loud while we waited for a call from the beach patrol. Las Baulas National Park on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast opens for high tides at night from October to February – leatherback sea turtle nesting season. After sunset on the beach and blackened tuna with jasmine rice and mango salsa, we arrived at 10:00 p.m. to check in and wait for a one ton turtle to haul herself from the depths of the Pacific at high tide, dig a hole, and lay eggs somewhere on this beach. (more…)
Endangered Species, Energy, Sagebrush Sea
BLM’s New Greater Sage-grouse Plan
December 30, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

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…)
Endangered Species, Politics, Wyoming
Wyoming Wolves In Crosshairs
August 10, 2011 | Permalink | 3 Comments

Members of the Basin Creek wolf pack chase one another in an open meadow. Yellowstone National Park, WY

We had heard from the lookout warden on Mount Sheridan that the Basin Creek pack – in our direction of travel – were active and we had a good chance of spotting them. Marla and I were backpacking in the Yellowstone backcountry, on a lollipop loop that circumnavigated Heart Lake. We added the hike up Mount Sheridan that afforded us a commanding view of Heart Lake and the Two Ocean Plateau, an enormous swath of wild country that’s perfect for wolves. At Basin Creek, we watched five or six wolves, one of them black as coal, playing like dogs on the forest edge. The next morning, they appeared in fog, rising on hind legs to play fight, then chased one another all across the meadow. A pair of cow elk entered the meadow, sniffed the air, then moved swifly to the forest sanctuary, their heads up as they sprinted away from their natural enemy. It was one of the most memorable wild experiences of our lives. (more…)
Colorado, Endangered Species, Sagebrush Sea
Grouse Blind
May 31, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

Sharing a Blind with Nappadol Paothong, Gunnison Basin, Colorado

Dr. Patrick Magee of Western State College sent me this image from one of the mornings when Nop and I shared a blind to photograph Gunnison Sage-grouse. Nop (the handsome one) is one of the top wildlife photographers around and it was great to get to know him a bit while in Gunnison.
Colorado, Endangered Species, Sagebrush Sea
Hope For The Gunnison Sage Grouse
April 20, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

“Please Take Care Of Our Gunnison Sage Grouse, by Browne Troop 10512, Gunnison, Colorado”

Impressions From The Gunnison Sage Grouse Summit, April, 2011

I just attended the Gunnison Sage-grouse Summit in Gunnison, CO; three days of presentations on all things related to saving the namesake grouse from extinction. And while the academic papers were impressive and the scope of the conservation effort mind-boggling, I kept looking at this mural made by the local Brownie Troop, a symbol of a community united for their endangered species. It also stands for hope, education, outreach, teaching kids the value of this place they call home and the fragility of an animal that may be the toughest bird out there – fragile because they need freedom to roam. I listened to the presenters talk about how our efforts will be measured 20 or 30 years from now, and thought about those Brownies just coming of age, finding their own voice. It’s part of what keeps me coming back to Gunnison, a sense of community that is real; ranchers, top Western biologists, agencies, conservationists, sportsmen, even the Brownie Troop rowing the same direction. (more…)
Colorado, Endangered Species, Sagebrush Sea
Gunnison Sage-grouse ~ Rare Bird
April 5, 2011 | Permalink | 8 Comments

Male Gunnison Sage-grouse perform an elaborate display… with a tail shimmy at the end.

It’s dark-thirty and I’m sitting in a blind waiting for birds again. It feels familiar, the early spring chill that seeps into my bones, sounds of coyotes, cows, a ranch dog barking, wood smoke wafting across the valley floor, a mountain valley waking up. I’ve been here before, but the feeling is different, the anticipation building. And I’m not alone – circumstances led to a blind-sharing arrangement, so I find myself spending the wait for birds and light with Noppadol Paothong, a top-notch conservation and wildlife photographer who’s working on a book about the lekking birds of North America. Nop and I are here to photograph Gunnison Sage-grouse, one of the most endangered creatures in North America, yet only listed as a candidate species – “warranted but precluded” from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Whatever their status, there are roughly 2,500 birds in eight counties, most in the Gunnison Basin, and people come from the world over for a glimpse of the bird and their elaborate display. They spend their life in sagebrush; and because of their secretive nature and low numbers, spring lekking season is the only realistic time of year to see Gunnison Sage-grouse. (more…)
Colorado, Endangered Species, From The Vault, Prairie
Black-footed Ferret Closeup
March 16, 2011 | Permalink | 5 Comments

Black-footed Ferret ready for relocation to the wild, National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center, Colorado

I stumbled upon this image during a recent hard drive treasure hunt. In 2006, I was working on my Prairie Thunder book and asked for permission from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to photograph at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center north of Fort Collins. At the time, there were no ferrets in the wild on the Colorado plains. There still aren’t. In fact, there is only one ferret living in the wild in the state – he’s up around Dinosaur in the northwest corner. There are around 800 or so wild ferrets in North America and only one prairie dog complex larger than 10,000 acres remains. It seems unlikely that their status as North America’s most endangered mammal will change anytime soon.

While photographing the ferrets, I forgot about all of those serious conservation concerns for a couple of hours and just enjoyed these gregarious, playful, beautiful animals. It’s still a highlight of my conservation work. As I was preparing the leave, the ferrets I had been photographing were trapped in preparation for relocation to priairie dog complexes from Chihuahua, Mexico to Shirley Basin, WY.