Deschutes weighs in on sage grouse

A Deschutes County report contends that land use here isn’t harming sage grouse, a candidate for federal species protection.

Other counties in Central and Eastern Oregon could employ the 27-page report as a template to build a case that the bird doesn’t need federal protection in Oregon, said Peter Gutowsky, principal planner for the Deschutes County Development Department.

“It is to try to really head off that federal listing,” he said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until fall 2015 to decide whether sage grouse should be listed in the West as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In 2010 the agency made a preliminary determination that the bird warranted protection, but other species took priority for the long listing process at the time because they faced a greater risk of extinction.

The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are reworking management plans in an effort to avoid a federal listing, and the BLM and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s office are leading a conservation partnership involving state and federal agencies, nonprofit groups and counties.

Through the report released last month, Deschutes County has joined the ongoing discussions.

The Deschutes County report is a “good analysis of what is going on,” said Joan Suther, sage grouse project manager in Oregon for the BLM.

It appears that most land development in Oregon is not in sage grouse range, with the bird mostly found in rural counties, or the rural parts of counties. Along with Deschutes County, Suther said Crook, Harney, Lake and Malheur counties have sage grouse habitat.

“The five counties have agreed to work with us and provide input in their areas of expertise,” she said.

County planners in Deschutes and the other four counties all have concerns about how a federal listing for sage grouse could affect what little land use there is where sage grouse are found, Gutowsky said. A federal listing of the bird would likely lead to stricter federal regulations on everything from cattle grazing to power-line siting.

“It basically has the potential to stymie economic development,” Gutowsky said.

Rather than land use, he said greater threats to sage grouse in Oregon are climate change, wildfire and invasive species like cheatgrass, which can take over grasslands dominated by sagebrush. Sage grouse prefer grasslands dominated by sagebrush.

Rangeland owl

The Deschutes County report provides a framework that the other counties could follow in compiling their own reports, said Deschutes County Commission Chairman Alan Unger.

“It’s a way to help other counties with less resources than ours with a plan, a path to address the issue,” he said.

Gutowsky said the bird has been described as the “spotted owl of rangeland,” but, in his report, argues that sage grouse are doing well in Deschutes County. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the northern spotted owl as threatened in 1990, leading to increased restrictions on the timber industry around the Northwest.

Sage grouse are found in Deschutes County near Brothers, Hampton and Millican, all southeast of Bend along U.S. Highway 20, according to the Deschutes County report. Their population is sparse and land use is light. The Bureau of Land Management oversees 72 percent of the 122,559 acres where sage grouse are found in the county. The remaining 28 percent is private land, where use is regulated by the county.

“Just 63 residents, living in 42 houses, occupy the area, amounting to a population density of one person for every 3 square miles,” Gutowsky wrote in the report.

After reviewing building permit activity from 2003 to 2013, Gutowsky said he found the county land use program effective in limiting rural development, the kind of development that could impact the sage grouse. Over the decade reviewed, the county issued 24 land use permits for 17 properties and 12 building permits. Most of the building permits involved the Oregon Department of Transportation site in Brothers and the Bend Trap Club, which built a clubhouse, range building and warming hut.

Dan Morse, conservation director for the Bend-based nonprofit Oregon Natural Desert Association, said the Deschutes County report may provide an example of how other counties could use land use controls to help sage grouse.

“I think the bottom line is about protecting sage grouse habitat …” he said.