Farm406

farm406 42 he says. "I don't know that I had any reservations. I had a few concerns that I voiced about how big of an anchor are you going to tie around my neck in terms of what I can and can't do. I quickly found out that wasn't the case at all." Aer Knapp's team installed the warning reflectors on Bret's fencing, one local guy teased him, asking, "you teaching those birds how to read?" But it wasn't long before curiosity turned to interest. Since that day in 2012 when Bret Lesh went to see her, 21 landowners in Carter County have sat down with Rebecca Knapp and entered into cost-share agreements for Sage Grouse Initiative projects. In February of 2019, the Society for Rangeland Management presented Rebecca with its Rangeland Management Specialist of the Year award, a national honor, and the highest in her profession. Knapp says the Sage Grouse Initiative "opened the door for landscape- level conservation planning and implementation across southern Carter County. "I think over the years we've built a good working relationship with people on the land," says Knapp, who has lived in Carter County since 1994. "Long-lasting conservation is inspired and driven by the producers. A project starts out with a connection – a conversation, a visit to the ranch – and ends as a series of improvements that span generations." e surge in conservation work for sage-grouse that began around 2010, when the bird was petitioned for federal listing as a threatened or endangered species, continues in the 11 western states with sage-grouse populations. e federal agency charged with making a determination on the birds' status, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, concluded in 2015 it would not list the sage-grouse, opting instead to give state-level conservation programs time to work. In 2020, the Service is planning to conduct a status review "to assess whether our collective efforts to conserve sage-grouse are moving in the right direction," according to its Web site. Following that review, the issue of listing the sage-grouse may or may not resurface. While the conservation challenges differ from one state to the next, southern Carter County offers as good a model as any for the elements needed to conserve the species. First and foremost, sage-grouse require a lot of territory. "ey use a big landscape," says Melissa Foster. "Some of our hens had really small home ranges, while others made seasonal movements of up to 30 miles between summer and winter ranges." In other states, studies have documented migrations spanning 100 miles. When bird numbers decline on breeding leks, it may be due to impacts such as new roads, dwellings, power lines, or conversion of sagebrush grasslands to crop fields many miles away. is is the second major challenge: the greater sage-grouse cannot abide human activities. Biologists have found bird numbers dwindle in areas where a new oil rig, cellphone tower, or wind turbine goes up within five miles of a breeding lek. In these situations, the birds don't necessarily move away. Foster says they lack "behavioral plasticity," the ability to consider moving to a new place. Instead, their numbers slowly decline over time. Northwest of Baker, Mont., in a region of heavy energy development, "there are still a handful of leks where male sage-grouse dance conspicuously next to pump jacks or main roads. I can't tell you how many times I've been told they're living proof that oilfield development doesn't bother sage-grouse," Foster says, "but when you look at lek counts for that area, there's a long-term downward trend." e National Sage Grouse Initiative administered by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service is one of many conservation efforts across the West. Montana has a state conservation program launched in 2013. Local and national nonprofit land trusts work directly with private landowners on conservation easements, which limit development and protect sagebrush landscapes, oen on a permanent basis. Federal land-management agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service have implemented rules for oil and gas development and other land-use activities in sage-grouse country. For now, the greater sage-grouse population appears relatively stable. But there is still more work to be done. Sage grouse hens grazing alongside a bull at an Oregon ranch. Photo courtesy of the USDA NRCS.

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