Draft report recommends against renewable energy projects in Oregon's key sage grouse habitat

[depakid]

File this under the "no free lunch" section.


Sage Grouse males put on a display during the John Scharff Migratory Bird Festival near the Malheur Wildlife Refuge near Burns.
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Renewable energy projects should not be built in key sage grouse habitat, including sections of eastern Crook and Deschutes counties, according to a draft of an updated state plan for management of the High Desert-dwelling bird. Recent studies show that energy developments can cause drops in sage grouse populations, said Christian Hagen, sage grouse coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. So the state is recommending that they not be built in certain key sagebrush habitats.

"Our recommendation seeks to protect the best of the best, and then mitigate the remainder," Hagen said.

But the recommendations would not be binding, he said, and counties and federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management can either follow them, modify them or not use them at all. "It's up to the local communities and their land use planners to weigh the pros and cons of that energy development and the wildlife values," Hagen said. "If they determine that the energy development is more important, then we'll have to work with them to figure out how to minimize the impact within the core."

The draft of the updated plan also sets targets for sage grouse population size and makes recommendations for improving the sagebrush habitat. The agency is holding a public meeting Wednesday to discuss the plan, answer questions and take comments.

Sage grouse are not currently listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but this spring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that, although the chicken-like birds are in enough trouble to warrant protection, other species have priority. One of the reasons for the state's recommendations, Hagen said, is to ensure that the sage grouse populations remain healthy enough to stay off the federal endangered species list.

"There's never any guarantees, but that's our best recommendation for us to maintain control," he said, adding that it "will provide greater flexibility of wind energy development, relative to any sort of federal (regulations)."

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2010/08/draft_report_nixes_building_renewable_energy_projects_in_oregons_sage_grouse_habitat.html

[MineralMan]

1. Virtually every undeveloped space has a species on it that

will be impacted by development. It's all give and take. Humans move into habitat and displace species.

It's all a trade-off. If it's not the sage grouse, it will be some other threatened species, wherever someone proposes these things.

We must make decisions and weigh one thing against another. Thus has it always been. Thus will it always be.