I guess ODFW doesn't have much to say about oil drilling in sage-grouse
habitat -- at least I'm not aware of any significant oil drilling in
Oregon -- though USFWS could have acted on that at the national level,
in its (non)listing decision.
Grazing reform and maintaining adequate landscape scale (limiting
encroachment by young junipers, wind turbines, power lines, residential
development etc.) would seem to be the main actionable issues here in
Oregon.
I'd give ODFW credit for working on juniper encroachment, at least. The
other major issues are mostly outside of their scope of authority.
Grazing reform (and not in the direction that the Bundy gang had in
mind) and preserving open landscapes on existing public lands would seem
to be the most important topics for the rest of us to work on.
Joel
On Sat, 2016-03-05 at 07:11 -0800, Craig Miller wrote:
I didn't mean to imply that hunting is the cause. Degraded habitat is
the cause. Yes, about half its range, but only 2% of past population.
All I am saying is that if ODFW wants to be anserious about protecting
sage-grouse, it needs to pull out all the stops, including grazing
reform, cessation of oil drilling in sage-grouse habitat, and yes,
even [cessation of] licensed killing.
Craig Miller
