Grouseonomics: The imperiled greater sage grouse, by the numbers

By now, every Westerner knows that the Strutter of the Sage, the greater sage grouse, may be flapping its way toward eventual extinction. As its habitat gets nibbled away by industry, housing and agriculture, the chicken-sized bird finds its numbers dwindling accordingly. And as goes the grouse, so goes the rest of the Sagebrush Sea and all its wild denizens.

This fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide if the sage grouse should be added to the endangered species list. If the bird is listed, protections for it will most likely result in major restrictions on growth and energy development. That possibility has catalyzed huge cooperative conservation efforts across every state where the grouse is found (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado and the Dakotas), with partners including federal and state agencies, local governments, landowners, tribes and energy companies.

Here's a set of numbers by which to better understand the bird and its impact on the West, extracted from research for an HCN cover feature (coming in August) on sage grouse.

350
Minimum number of other bird and mammal species that also rely on sagebrush steppe habitat

1,250
Minimum number of insect species found on one 250-acre tract of Idaho sagebrush

1
Number of different foods that sage grouse eat during winter months (sagebrush)

2010
Year that Fish and Wildlife Service determined that greater sage grouse should be on the endangered species list, but that other species had higher priority

258,000
Minimum square miles of the West that are covered by sagebrush steppe today

600,000
Minimum square miles historically covered

200,000
Estimated number of sage grouse remaining

16,000,000
Estimated historic number of sage grouse

60
Percent of sage grouse habitat on public land managed by the BLM and Forest Service

20
Percent of jobs, primarily tourism and outdoor recreation, that depend on sagebrush ecosystem, in parts of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming ¹

20
Percent of jobs in Wyoming that depend on oil and gas development

5,631,509,000
Estimated annual amount of economic output (in dollars) that would be lost if the bird was listed as endangered ²

1,055,274,000
Estimated annual economic contribution (in dollars) made by visitors to BLM sagebrush lands ³

425,000,000
Estimated total (in dollars) spent by Natural Resources Conservation Service and partners on West-wide grouse conservation efforts ⁶

357,000,000
Estimated total (in dollars) spent on construction of AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants

3 – 5
Width of buffer, in miles, around sage grouse breeding grounds (leks) where no human disturbance should occur, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service

56
Percent by which number of breeding male grouse across entire range dropped between 2007 and 2013 ⁴

20
Number of female grouse that may mate with a single chosen male on one morning

37
Percent of total greater sage grouse population found in Wyoming

29
Percent of Wyoming’s sage grouse that could be lost, long-term, to residential and oil and gas development, without conservation measures in place ⁵

6 – 15
Percent of Wyoming’s sage grouse that could be lost, long-term, to residential and oil and gas development under state’s sage grouse conservation plan ⁵

The Fish and Wildlife Service will announce its decision on listing the grouse by September 30, 2015. Congressional Republicans have been trying to delay that decision with various riders and bills; none have succeeded so far, but expect those efforts to continue. Also see these earlier HCN stories:

• The sage grouse two-step
• New state and fed efforts to protect sage grouse
• What’s good for the rancher is good for the grouse
• Crude tactics worked against the sage grouse
• The messy mix of energy and sage grouse

References

• ¹ Recreation Spending and BLM Sagebrush Lands, Pew Charitable Trusts 2014 report
• ² Economic Impact of 2013 Sage Grouse Conservation Plan, by Law Offices of Lowell E. Baier
• ³ The Economics of Sagebrush: What five priority sagebrush landscapes contribute to western economies, Western Values Project 2015 report
• ⁴ Greater Sage-­Grouse Population Dynamics and Probability of Persistence, Pew Charitable Trusts 2015 report
• ⁵ Predicting the Outcome of Wyoming’s Sage Grouse Conservation Strategy,
  Sage Grouse Initiative 2014 report
• ⁶ Sage Grouse Inventory, 2014 Conservation Initiatives, Western Governors' Association

Jodi Peterson is a senior editor at High Country News.

Follow @peterson_jodi

• Wildlife
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife
• Endangered Species