Posted Friday, March 18, 2005

Strawberry Valley may receive Sage-grouse

VERNAL — Sage-grouse from Diamond and/or Blue Mountain in northeastern Utah may soon be on their way to help jump-start a population in the Strawberry Valley in north-central Utah.

This action, proposed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), was recently reviewed and given a "thumbs-up" by several citizen committees, including local sage-grouse working groups, Utah's five Regional Advisory Councils, involved counties, and the Utah Wildlife Board.

Sage-grouse might be coming to Strawberry. Photo by Ron Stewart

The proposal is to release greater sage-grouse trapped from large populations in Utah to help increase the number of birds in the Strawberry Valley. The releases would continue until the population reaches 500 breeding birds, or if studies show the effort isn't working. Only populations over 500 are allowed to be hunted under current regulations, so biologists will be taking birds only from areas that have more than 500 birds.

In the DWR's Northeastern Region, only the Diamond-Blue mountain population is over 500 birds.

"This transplant is part of an ongoing cooperative research project on greater sage-grouse between DWR and Brigham Young University," said Brian Maxfield, DWR biologist. "The research results to date have proven very interesting and positive.

"The reason the request was considered is preliminary releases into Strawberry Valley from Parker Mountain [in southern Utah] have done extremely well because of the excellent habitat. Released birds have not only joined the resident populations on both their summer and wintering grounds, they have followed them back to the leks or breeding grounds. The studies indicate the Strawberry population is increasing rapidly, and the Parker Mountain population has also increased during the period they have been taking birds for the Strawberry study."

Because of these indicators of success, the division would like to step up the recovery process by releasing more birds per year. Diamond Mountain is one of a few areas in Utah with more than 500 breeding birds, so it has been added to the list of possible trapping sites.

"It's actually an opportunity for us to increase the populations on some of our northeastern areas," Maxfield said. "The studies show many of the Strawberry sage-grouse winter in the flats below Grey Wolf and Tabby mountains. If the Strawberry population gets large enough, it could help supplement other populations in the surrounding area.

"In addition, if we can help establish another major population by taking a few birds from Diamond Mountain, then we may be able to request birds to transplant back into our region," Maxfield said. "If we tried to transplant birds into nearby sites, the birds may try and return to their original areas and would likely perish on the way. It's better to use birds from farther away."

Another concern biologists have expressed is the thought among people that the sage-grouse crisis is over.

"We don't want to give the impression that sage-grouse are no longer considered a sensitive species," said Walt Donaldson, DWR regional supervisor. "They are definitely a 'Species of Special Concern.' They were petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act for a good reason; sage-grouse populations are declining or are gone in many areas around the Western states. We want to protect what we have and continue efforts to restore populations and habitat for both the greater and Gunnison sage-grouse. Our goal is to keep them off the endangered list."

"We will be monitoring the capture-site populations almost as closely as we monitor the released birds," Maxfield said. "At the first indication grouse numbers in a capture area are declining, we will discontinue trapping.

"We are also progressing with efforts to improve the habitat for sage-grouse. First, to maintain and enhance it around the sites where we still have good populations of birds, and second to improve it in the areas where the birds are declining. It's likely future transplants will be used to jumpstart populations in those areas where the habitat is considered in good or excellent condition.

"Hopefully, the Strawberry Valley efforts are just the first of many to restore sage-grouse populations around the state."