In today’ s economics and politics, that’ s not foreseeable. •
Kolar said that officials, mostly federal, began removing sage brush in the early 1950s as part of range management. That was long before the oil boom. Kolar said sagebrush wasn’ t a savored ticket item at that time, in competition for grassland. While grassland is essential for many things and is also disappearing rapidly today, it was not prime sage grouse habitat.
Around 2000, West Nile disease entered the scene and further tilted the population, although Kolar isn’ t quick to blame the disease overall as the primary reason for sage grouse demise.
“ West Nile was tough on them,” he said.“ But it isn’ t a certainty that it necessarily killed them to the extent we first thought. We don’ t know for sure.”
The lack of male sage grouse sightings last spring didn’ t come as a surprise to Kolar. It’ s another sign of the area’ s native prairie ecosystem gradually disappearing.
“ Sagebrush is just not a valued plant,” said Kolar in a Bismarck Tribune article by Joey Harris.“ It’ s seen as a competitor to grass( for ranchers) and a weed to farmers.”
There are only a relative few wildlife species that cannot tolerate even minor human intrusion, sage grouse near the top of the list. The prized native birds are highly sensitive to interruptions into their space and tend to move away as human activity increases.
John Bradley, North Dakota Wildlife Federation leader, reflected on the importance of industry encroachment into sage grouse territory. In Harris’ article, he said,“ The more we dissect those core areas with roads, utility transmission lines, conversions to cropland, oil and gas development, it kind of creates that perfect storm.”
Wildlife managers, in hopes of trying to bring back the population, transplanted some 200 birds from Wyoming from 2017 to 2021. It didn’ t work.
“ There was low nest success, and even with that, eggs didn’ t hatch,” Kolar said.“ The few that hatched experienced high chick mortality.” The program was abandoned. Sage grouse are among the most wildest of birds that need, in addition to habitat, space and solitude. They’ re intolerant of most any activity, even regular ranching operations. The return of natural sagebrush could possibly help revive sage grouse to appreciable numbers, but that isn’ t going to happen, according to officials.
With the now rapidly increasing changes in the landscape, Kolar said other wildlife like pronghorn antelope and mule deer are struggling as well with the altered habitat. In fact, North Dakota’ s recent spring mule deer population survey the western part of the state was down 14 percent, even with two consecutive mild winters and fewer permits. That points to habitat loss.
Other intrusions include changes in the political leadership of the country. Environmental decisions effect land and wildlife all over the U. S. Rules are promulgated under one administration, changed under the next.
For now, Kolar said he doesn’ t foresee a future for sage grouse in North Dakota.
“ I don’ t want to be gloom and doom but there’ s no hope of sage grouse ever coming back,” he said.“ It would take another big program( like CRP) to get farmers not to plant.”
In today’ s economics and politics, that’ s not foreseeable. •
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