USDA Invests an Additional $211 Million for Sage Grouse Conservation Efforts

WASHINGTON (August 27, 2015) – Today, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Natural Resources Conservation Service will continue its partnership with ranchers to invest in efforts for the conservation of Sage Grouse habitat. The four-year strategy will invest approximately $211 million in conservation efforts on public and private lands throughout the 11 Western states. The Public Lands Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association appreciate the NRCS’s commitment to a continued partnership with ranchers.

“Ranchers across the West appreciate the continued partnership with NRCS through the Sage Grouse Initiative,” said Brenda Richards, PLC president and rancher from southern Idaho. “As the original stewards of our Western lands, ranchers work day-in and day-out to maintain healthy rangelands and conserve our natural resources for the generations to come. The Sage Grouse Initiative has proven itself to be a win-win for livestock producers and the grouse, and the partnership through 2018 will support the continuation of the successful conservation efforts already underway.”

The sage grouse is found in eleven states across the western half of the United States, including California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming and encompasses 186 million acres of public and private land. In 2010, the Sage Grouse Initiative launched and has helped ranchers implement increased conservation efforts on their land, benefiting both the grouse habitat and rangeland for livestock ranchers.

The Sage Grouse, due to frivolous lawsuit and litigation, is currently at risk of being listed under the Endangered Species Act. However, the ESA has become one of the most economically damaging laws facing our nation’s livestock producers and is great need of modernization. When species are listed as “threatened” or “endangered” under the ESA, the resulting use-restrictions placed on land and water, the two resources upon which ranchers depend for their livelihoods, are crippling. The ESA has not been reauthorized since 1988 and NCBA and PLC believe the rather than listing the grouse under the ESA, efforts like the Sage Grouse Initiative will benefit the bird more and prove that listing is not the answer.

“The Endangered Species Act is outdated and has proven itself ineffective,” said Philip Ellis, who ranches in Wyoming. “Of the 1,500 domestic species listed since 1973, less than two percent have ever been deemed recovered. With this partnership, voluntary conservation efforts have increased, ranchers remain on the land, and wildlife habitat is thriving. In fact, Interior Secretary Jewell announced this year that through working with ranchers and other stakeholders in Nevada and California, the Bi-State Sage Grouse population was no longer at risk and was not listed under the ESA. This is prime example of how land management and conservation efforts should be made, in partnership with those that know the land the best – not by bureaucrats in Washington DC.”

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