Voluntary conservation will prevent fed intervention

Editor:

The clock is ticking on an "endangered species" listing of the greater sage-grouse. If U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to list the bird in 2015, it will mean huge changes to Montana and the western states where the grouse has historically lived.

Ranchers may have their federal grazing land leases curtailed. Oil and gas development may be stalled. Other road and energy development may be stopped in certain areas.

The USFWS's Conservation Objectives: Final Report itemizes what threats to the sage-grouse remain. Now we must diminish those threats to avoid a listing and the resulting cumbersome process of consultation for actions in sage-grouse range.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has pushed this issue to the forefront and understands that it isn't only the sage-grouse that is threatened. If ranching and energy developmenta are to remain in Montana, we must hurriedly write a workable plan to address the birds' threats. My kudos go to Gov. Bullock for his action.

Since 2010, the Sage Grouse Initiative has worked diligently to assist ranchers across 11 western states. SGI is a multiple-partnered effort that focuses public and private conservation funds into core sage-grouse areas to flag or remove fences near sage grouse breeding grounds, leave more grass to protect spring broods from predators, protect large blocks of rangelands from development through easements, and remove moisture-sucking conifers from sage-grouse habitat.

These efforts will pay off only if USFWS sticks to its promise of assessing the impacts of voluntary conservation work in the core sage-grouse areas.

Joyce Swartzendruber

Bozeman