Gov orders grouse guidelines

Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday issued an executive order outlining the state's plan to protect the greater sage grouse and its habitat in Wyoming.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide before year's end whether to list the game bird under the Endangered Species Act -- a move that could have a chilling effect on Wyoming's booming energy industry.

Freudenthal's executive order consists of 12 guidelines and a map of "core" areas where the stipulations could be implemented.

"The executive order does not create any new authority and legally only applies to state agencies, but is a vehicle to at least align the existing authorities of state government to ensure that we move forward under a more unified framework," Freudenthal said in a prepared statement.

New development will not be prohibited within the state-identified "core areas," but several stipulations may apply in order to demonstrate that activity will result in no loss of sage grouse or sage grouse habitat, according to the executive order. Reclamation efforts and fire suppression will be "enhanced" in the core areas.

"All of this shows the state's intent and the state's actions: that we are very serious about the conservation of sage grouse. In Wyoming, if you say you're going to do something, you do it. This isn't window dressing," said Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust.

Budd also heads the governor's Sage Grouse Implementation Team.

Although the executive order doesn't have authority over federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, federal officials have said they will work cooperatively with the state's plan.

Working with BLM

The BLM controls more than 60 percent of the mineral estate in the Powder River Basin, where tens of thousands of coal-bed methane wells have been drilled during the past decade. In May, BLM Buffalo field office manager Chris Hanson announced that his agency's oversight had failed to adequately protect the birds and threatens to "extirpate" the local sage grouse population.

To rectify the problem, Hanson announced the agency would impose special restrictions in "interim management areas" during a two-year "amendment" of the BLM Buffalo field office's resource management plan. BLM officials said it used the state's "core areas" map as a foundation to create an "interim management area" map where energy, agriculture and recreational uses may be limited during the two-year amendment process.

"We're all working to meet the needs of sage grouse and meet the needs of energy," said Wyoming BLM spokeswoman Teresa Howes.

This week the Powder River Basin Resource Council issued a press release stating that it had obtained internal BLM documents revealing that the agency has failed to maintain a proper level of inspection and enforcement of coal-bed methane activities. While inspections and enforcement declined during the past six years, according to the council, the BLM's permitting of new wells skyrocketed.

Several landowners in the basin, and the Powder River Basin Resource Council, have been critical of both the state and BLM, accusing them of working too closely with energy companies to create the maps. In fact, several BLM permits for coal-bed methane projects have been appealed to the state BLM director and even the Interior Board of Land Appeals based on arguments that critical sage grouse populations and habitats were carved out of the maps.

"All this comes down to phased development. If we would have pursued the phased development approach, we would not be facing the problems we're facing. It's not too late to do it now as we move forward," said Powder River Basin Resource Council organizer Jill Morrison.

In response to such criticism, Howes said the various sage grouse management teams and the governor's sage grouse implementation team included stakeholders from all interests, including landowners and conservationists.

"There's always give and take in these processes," Howes said.

Petroleum Association of Wyoming vice president Cheryl Sorenson said energy developers in the Powder River Basin were presented with a map by the BLM in consideration of the interim management areas. In working with the governor's task force, "everyone was around the table to develop the map," Sorenson said.

"We've been appreciative of the governor. He's given energy people a seat at the table," Sorenson added.

'The state's ante'

Audubon Wyoming executive director Brian Rutledge served on the governor's sage grouse team. Before the executive order was issued, Rutledge told the Star-Tribune he was hopeful that it would better protect the bird from the impacts of energy development.

"None of us have a belief that it will stop development, but it will guide development in more innovative ways," Rutledge said. "Energy is the most immediate impact. There are other threats (to sage grouse), but right now the most significant challenge to the species is energy development."

The sage grouse's estimated 160 million acres of existing sagebrush habitat across 11 states is half of the bird's historic range. The bird narrowly missed a listing in 2005 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service backed off, recognizing more than 150 local partnerships with landowners, conservation districts and other stakeholders aimed at preserving the species.

Beginning as early as 2005, the state, along with energy, agriculture and conservation groups, began cooperative efforts to map sage grouse populations and habitat across Wyoming and other Western states. Freudenthal launched the Sage Grouse Implementation Team in June 2007 which brought forth several recommendations on how state agencies should manage land use activities to better protect the bird.

"The executive order is not an end in itself, it is really just a way to demonstrate that the state's ante is on the table," Freudenthal said in a prepared statement on Friday. "Wyoming's efforts, matched with those of our federal partners and private landowners, will hopefully start us down the road to the point where no one even looks at needing to list the grouse in this state."