Sage grouse of Western plains seen as next 'spotted owl'

In a vast panorama of scruffy land near the scenic gateway to the Wind River mountains, two natural treasures exist. One has collected in pools beneath the surface; the other forages among the sagebrush from which it takes its name.

Hundreds - soon to be thousands - of oil and gas wells pound the earth outside Pinedale, drilling for a natural bounty that is bringing much-needed revenue to a recovering state that once served as a backdrop to the Marlboro Man.

But the energy boom spawned by the Bush administration, conservationists say, comes at the expense of the greater sage grouse, whose last robust population lies directly in the path of the drilling.

"This is a robbery of national proportion," says librarian turned activist Linda Baker, who commutes to work every day past the beehive of drill pads and pipelines in the Jonah Natural Gas Field and equally rich Pinedale Anticline. "It's as far from balanced public land management and multiple use as you can get."

Hoping to slow the pace of development, Ms. Baker wants the greater sage grouse to receive federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Yet natural-resource industry groups argue that listing the bird would only transform it into "the spotted owl" of the high plains and harm both the grouse and the industry.

"Even if sound science shows someday that the greater sage grouse is threatened by possible extinction," says Jim Sims of Partnership for the West, "imposing the regulatory straightjacket of the Endangered Species Act on this situation would be the absolute worst thing for the bird and for the people of the West."

Once common across the West, greater sage grouse - the native resident game birds known for their distinctive spring mating dance called "strutting" - have dwindled dramatically. Reduced to scattered clusters in 11 states, the total grouse population today is one-tenth the number that existed 200 years ago, and only half as large as in the '70s. Some biologists believe that without federal protection, the bird could be extinct in 50 years.

Earlier this month, however, the plumed avian won a surprising ally. Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D), who has applauded energy development in Wyoming, joined New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in asking the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to impose a temporary freeze on the leasing of new wells until all of the impacts have been studied.

A variety of causes are blamed for the bird's decline in the West: livestock grazing, habitat encroachment by exotic plants, ATV recreation, new homes, and possibly the West Nile virus. But none has prompted more debate in Wyoming than energy development worth billions of dollars.

In 2002, the Bush administration set a new record for the number of oil and gas permits it processed in the West and Alaska, and the mark was surpassed last year. BLM staffers across the West say they are overwhelmed with processing drilling applications but insist the buffer zones they have proscribed to protect grouse breeding areas are adequate.

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