The sage grouse population in Alberta and Saskatchewan is rising, according to reports from the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Thirty-five male sage grouse have been counted in Alberta this year, up from 14 in 2014, the AWA said,
Another 20 males have been counted in Saskatchewan, up from six seen in active breeding grounds last year.
“This is a strong endorsement for federal intervention under the Species at Risk Act where provincial inaction and poor provincial endangered species laws allow endangered wildlife to reach a crisis,” Ecojustice lawyer Melissa Gorrie said in a June 3 news release from the AWA. Ecojustice is nonprofit organization that pays lawyers to litigate on environmental issues.
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“The emergency order is doing what it should, protecting sage-grouse habitat from more industrialization and promoting more on-the-ground action to restore damaged lands.”
The emergency protection order initiated by the federal government in December 2013 drew criticism from the ranching community and limited oil and gas activity in an area around Medicine Hat.
Restrictions on activity in the area deemed to be the northern limit of sage grouse habitat has also restricted grazing activity and ranch maintenance.
Among the more vocal critics of the protection order are Keith and Ronda Reesor, who ranch near the affected zone.
They say the effects of natural predators on sage grouse have been under estimated and the effect of ranching unfairly targeted as detrimental to the birds.
“There’s probably a 35 to 40 square mile piece of country that is virtually unchanged in the last 80 years. The only thing that’s different is the trains don’t run there anymore,” said Keith Reesor in an earlier interview.
“Well, why aren’t these birds collected in that area? … They’re not collected there because the bird (population) is ebbing and flowing.”
The Reesors and other stock growers also worry that the emergency protection order, the first ever imposed by the federal government to protect an endangered species, might be the beginning of other orders that restrict agricultural activity.
However, in light of higher sage grouse numbers, conservationists now say the EPO was warranted and effective.
“Just a few years ago, in the absence of any meaningful protection from the provincial and the federal governments, it seemed inevitable that these birds would go extinct in Canada,” said Cliff Wallis of the AWA in a news release.
“But now, we have reason to hope. With the cooperation of all parties, including landowners working to protect the sage grouse, our hope is that populations will continue to grow.”
Contact barb.glen@producer.com
