The North American Grouse Partnership

"...the grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or the energy of an acre.

Yet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead.”

- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac , 1949


Welcome to the North American Grouse Partnership!

The North American Grouse Partnership (NAGP) is the only conservation organization that advocates for all 12 North American grouse species and their habitats. Our strength is found in three key areas - Science, Policy, and Management. This is demonstrated by the experience and expertise of our Board of Directors and Council of Scientists and is unparalleled in grouse conservation circles. Our goal is to ensure that grouse conservation is guided by science, public policies are beneficial to grouse and that on-the-ground management of lands lead to positive outcomes for grouse.


WHAT’S NEW? - SEE BELOW FOR THE LATEST


Joint Meeting of the MN Prairie Chicken & Sharp-tailed Grouse Societies April 19-20, 2024 at Crookston, MN

Grouse Enthusiasts, you are invited to join the MN Prairie Chicken Society and MN Sharp-tailed Grouse Society at their joint gathering in Crookston on April 19-20.  

Click below to see the flier with agenda, registration, and lodging information.

This special combining of our flocks happens only once every 4-6 years. Don’t miss it! Pre-register by April 10.  

There will be a Friday afternoon field tour, Saturday morn field trip and viewing blind opportunities, then presentations, brief membership meetings, fundraising, and of course general frolicking and tail feather shaking. 

Posters are welcome if you would like to share the latest on your research or habitat projects.    

Please spread the word and feel free to donate raffle items. See ya ‘ there! 


BLM PROPOSES STRONGER GREATER SAGE-GROUSE CONSERVATION PLANS

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Press, BLM_Press@blm.gov, March 14, 2024

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is announcing a draft plan to strengthen greater sage-grouse conservation and management on public lands, informed by the best-available science and input from local, state, federal, and Tribal partners. The draft plan is built on decades of partnership, research, and on-the-ground knowledge and experience in maintaining, protecting and restoring healthy sagebrush habitats.

Greater sage-grouse rely on sagebrush lands for all aspects of their life cycle to meet seasonal needs for food, cover and reproduction. A local population may need up to 40 square miles of intact landscape to stay healthy. Populations once in the millions now number fewer than 800,000, largely due to habitat loss exacerbated by climate change, such as drought, increasing wildfires, and invasive species. Protecting and restoring sagebrush on BLM-managed public lands across the West is critical not just for greater sage-grouse, but also for the health of western communities and other iconic Western species that rely on healthy sagebrush, including mule deer, pronghorn, and the pygmy rabbit. Additionally, these collaboratively developed landscape-level plans will ensure that other multiple uses of BLM sagebrush lands – including clean energy projects – move forward in a manner that limits impacts to sensitive resources and can also help combat climate change—a main driver of greater sage-grouse habitat loss.

“The majesty of the West and its way of life are at stake. Sagebrush lands are places where people work and play, and they are the headwaters for the West’s major rivers,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “Joint efforts to conserve the greater sage-grouse and its habitat led to the largest collaborative conservation effort in our history, and we are building on that work, together with our partners, to ensure the health of these lands and local economies into the future.”

The BLM manages the largest single share of sage-grouse habitat in the United States—nearly 67 million acres of 145 million total acres. The draft plan offers a range of alternatives for sustainable management of these lands. Balancing a consistent management approach across the range while addressing conditions and policies unique to individual states, BLM will be able to work more effectively with state and local managers to protect and improve sagebrush habitats on public lands.

Alternatives in the proposal build on the most successful components of the plans that the BLM adopted in 2015 and updated in 2019. The draft plan incorporates new sage-grouse conservation science and lessons learned, accommodating changing resources conditions while increasing implementation flexibility. The agency considered nearly 1,900 comments gathered during an initial public scoping period and information shared by state, local, federal, and Tribal partners in more than 100 meetings.

The BLM will hold 13 public meetings to answer questions and take further comments on the draft alternatives and analysis. Information on public meetings will be posted in the events column on the main page of the BLM website.

In addition to actions guided by the greater sage-grouse management plans, the BLM is actively restoring and conserving sagebrush habitat across the West through the Biden Administration’s Investing in America agenda. Annually, the BLM invests approximately $35 million of its congressional appropriation in sagebrush ecosystem projects, supplemented by $123 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and complemented by investments by state and local governments, Tribes, stakeholder groups, and private landowners.

The draft environmental impact statement and plan amendments will open for public comment on March 15, 2024. The comment period will end on June 13, 2024. More information on how to comment on this draft will be posted at https://www.blm.gov/sagegrouse. A final environmental impact statement is expected this fall, followed by Records of Decision in each state.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.


It's "MEMBERSHIP MARCH" at NAGP! Join/Renew this Month and Get Entered in a Drawing for OnX Hunt Elite Memberships and NAGP Caps.

Membership support of the North American Grouse Partnership (NAGP) is critical to building our voice and meeting our mission to conserve grouse and their habitats, the places we love. We appreciate all you do, from locally improving habitat to telling Congress what we need to back better and more conservation.

Stand with NAGP in grouse conservation by joining or renewing in March and be entered into a drawing for 25 OnX Hunt Elite Memberships and 10 NAGP caps. For the latter, you'll get your choice of blaze orange, real tree camo, or olive/real tree green, all with a leatherette NAGP patch.

Much thanks to OnX for providing the memberships! OnX, we "know where you stand" in support of grouse conservation.

This greater prairie-chicken image was captured in Kansas by Tyler Sladen and his 5 year old son. Thanks, fellows!


The “Grouse Trail” is Back at Pheasant Fest 2024!

This year find us at booths 2600-2606 near the Public Lands Pavilion.

- Visit each grouse org's booth and get entered for door prizes!

- Check out the grouse viewing blind with video of all 12 species.

- Learn from grouse presentations on the Public Lands Stage each day.

- Info and tickets are available at https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Pheasant-Fest.aspx

- Support grouse conservation, because when grouse thrive, wild habitats thrive!


Early Estimates from Wyoming’s 2023 Sage Grouse Wing Collection Indicate Increased Reproduction

Wyoming Game & Fish Department News Release -

CHEYENNE - Early estimates from Wyoming’s 2023 sage grouse wings indicate increased sage grouse reproduction. Wings from harvested chick and hen sage grouse are collected from hunters — primarily in central and southwest Wyoming — who voluntarily contribute wings by dropping them off at designated collection points during the hunting season. 

Hunters deposited wings from 1,551 chicks and 852 hens in collection barrels. In a preliminary analysis, Wyoming’s 2023 chick-to-hen ratio was 1.82 chicks/hen. It’s an increase from previous years when the reproduction ratio was at 0.8 chicks/hen. Based on these numbers, male lek attendance is expected to be slightly higher this spring.

“Good moisture in the spring and summer and quality habitat are the top two contributing factors of chick survival,” said Nyssa Whitford, Wyoming Game and Fish Department sage grouse/sagebrush biologist.

During the first month of life, chicks rely on a diet of high-protein insects with adequate habitat cover. As the bird grows, grass and forbs — like wildflowers — become another important food source. Older birds rely almost exclusively on sagebrush in their diet. 

“Sage grouse are a sagebrush obligate species and could not survive without it,” Whitford said.

Thirty-eight percent of the world’s sage grouse is in Wyoming, and the state supports more than 1,700 known, occupied leks. Wyoming is a sage grouse stronghold, Whitford said, and hunters who harvest birds provide valuable information for management. 
 
“We appreciate hunters dropping off wings in our collection barrels. This enhances our annual data collection efforts,” Whitford said.
 
A full analysis for 2023 bird populations will be available in the sage grouse job completion report, posted on the Game and Fish website in the spring.

Breanna Ball, Public Information Officer - breanna.ball1@wyo.gov - Wyoming Game & Fish Department


A New Grasslands Conservation Program for Ranching, Wildlife, and the American Public - Access the January 10, 2024 Webinar Here

Much thanks to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) for partnering with NAGP on this webinar (see Jan. 3 post below). In it, Steve Riley, ABC, and Terry Riley, NAGP, explain "A Strategy to Recover Lesser Prairie-Chickens Through A New or Modified Farm Bill Conservation Program". The webinar recording is now available by clicking on the below button.


A New Grasslands Conservation Program for Ranching, Wildlife, and the American Public - Free Webinar on Jan. 10, 3 pm ET

There are about 600 million acres of grasslands left in the U.S. They occur throughout the country and are among our most threatened landscapes. We have been losing acres at an alarming rate for a long time. One disastrous result of those sustained losses is that we now have about half as many birds in our grasslands that we did in 1970. And the decline continues.

More needs to be done to conserve grasslands and their birds, such as the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. One possible way of doing this is by creating a federally-funded program or amending existing ones that incentivize private landowners to conserve grasslands.

Join Dr. Terry Riley, Policy Director for the North American Grouse Partnership, and Steve Riley, Director of Farm Bill Policy for American Bird Conservancy, to learn about:

- What a new federally funded grasslands conservation program would do.

- How the program would work and its cost.

- How the program could help recover the Lesser Prairie-chicken.

These brothers recently published "A Strategy to Recover Lesser Prairie-Chickens Through A New or Modified Farm Bill Conservation Program" which is the backdrop and primer for this webinar. The article can be read in the recent NAGP fall 2023 magazine sent to NAGP members and supporters, or by clicking on the below button.

If you can't make the webinar live, RSVP now and we'll send you a recording when the time is right for you.


BLM Seeking Public Input on Plan to Support Gunnison Sage-Grouse Recovery

Male Gunnison sage-grouse display, Photo from USFWS library.

Nov 8, 2023, BLM News Release - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comment on a plan to preserve and enhance habitat for eight Gunnison sage-grouse populations on public lands across southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. Gunnison sage-grouse are a federally protected species distinct from the greater sage-grouse, and only inhabit portions of Colorado and Utah. This planning effort is separate from the BLM’s greater sage-grouse planning effort.

To develop the draft plan, the BLM evaluated 11 existing land use plans to identify management actions with potential to impact Gunnison sage-grouse populations and habitat. The draft details five alternative management approaches for addressing the habitat and conservation needs of the species, in balance with the many other resources and activities the BLM manages for, including recreation, livestock grazing, lands and realty, wildland and prescribed fire, and energy and minerals.

“Public feedback during this comment period is critical in shaping our management that benefits this threatened species,” said BLM Colorado State Director Doug Vilsack. “Public input on the draft will help us finalize an approach that allows for the Gunnison sage-grouse population to recover—and perhaps eventually be removed from Endangered Species Act listing—while continuing the important work the BLM does to manage public lands on behalf of the American people.”

The Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment and Draft Environmental Impact Statement analyze management issues and incorporate recommendations from the 2020 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Final Recovery Plan For Gunnison Sage-Grouse.

A Notice of Availability is published in the Federal Register for a 90-day public comment period that ends February 6, 2024. Written comments can be submitted through the “Participate Now” option on the BLM National NEPA Register (preferred) or delivered to: BLM Southwest District Office, ATTN: GUSG RMPA, 2465 S. Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401. Additional documents, maps, resources, and other information are also available at the online register.

For additional information, please contact Sage-Grouse Coordinator Leah Waldner at (970) 244-3045 or BLM_CO_GUSG_RMPA@blm.gov.

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The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Their mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.


Biden Vetoes Effort to Strip Protections for Lesser Prairie-Chicken

President Joe Biden vetoed two joint resolutions Tuesday that would have stripped Endangered Species Act protections from the recently listed lesser-prairie chicken and northern long-eared bat. The vetoes maintain ESA protections for them.

Each measure “would overturn a science-based rulemaking that follows the requirements of the law, and thereby undermines the ESA,” Biden said in announcing the vetoes.

S.J.Res. 9 sought to remove ESA protections from the lesser-prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). The GOP-backed resolution passed the Senate on May 3 with a 50-48 vote. The vote fell mostly along party lines, with a swing vote from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin. The resolution passed in the House in late July with a 221-206 vote, including four votes from Democrats in states with lesser prairie-chicken populations.

Once occupying 100 million acres across the U.S., the lesser prairie-chicken has dwindled by 97%, mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation. With fewer than 30,000 individual birds remaining in the wild, mostly in Kansas, the lesser prairie-chicken was listed as endangered in late March. The listing decision faced an immediate backlash, with Kansas lawmakers leading the push to reverse it.

“The lesser prairie-chicken serves as an indicator for healthy grasslands and prairies, making the species an important measure of the overall health of America’s grasslands,” President Biden said in his statement.

“If enacted,” Biden said, the resolution “would undermine America’s proud wildlife conservation traditions and risk extinction of the species.”

Biden’s move follows up on his announcement in May that he intended to veto both resolutions. Since the two measures lack the votes to override a presidential veto, ESA protections for the species will likely remain for the foreseeable future, although opposition to the listings is expected to continue.

Read the full story by Tom Klein in The Wildlife Society's eWildlifer by clicking the button below.


August 1 -2, 2023 at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area

Program and Presentations Available


NAGP Grouse Gear is Ready for Your Fall Adventures

We’ve got beanies, caps, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sun shirts, vests, and jackets, including recycled and organic fabrics.

20% of proceeds go back to NAGP to support our mission!


Resolution Would End Lesser Prairie-Chicken Endangered Species Act Protection

by Laura Bies in The Wildlife Society (TWS) News, May 15, 2023

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution last week to end Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). The resolution passed with a 50-48 vote falling mostly along party lines.

However, under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can disapprove any recently finalized administration rules with a simple majority vote in both chambers. A companion resolution to invalidate the final rule is now under consideration in the House of Representatives. It has already been approved by the Natural Resources Committee and now awaits a vote on the House floor. President Biden has vowed to veto the resolution.

The lesser prairie chicken has been at the center of Endangered Species Act controversy for years. It was first made a candidate for listing in 1998, but no formal action was taken until 2014, when the species was listed as threatened. The oil and gas industry, among others, soon challenged that decision, citing concerns about the listings’ effect on oil and gas production.

In 2015, the listing was struck down in U.S. District Court because when deciding to list the species, the agency did not give enough weight to the potential positive impacts of the habitat conservation plan that state wildlife agencies and other partners developed. When the Obama administration dropped its appeal of the court’s decision in 2016, the Center for Biological Diversity and others petitioned the species for listing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not act on that petition, prompting those groups to file a lawsuit in 2019.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing again in June 2021 as part of a settlement in that lawsuit. In late 2022, the USFWS announced its decision to list the species. Under the rule, the southern distinct lesser prairie chicken population in eastern New Mexico and the southwest Texas Panhandle would be listed as an endangered species. The northern distinct population in the northeast Texas Panhandle, southeast Colorado, south-central Kansas and western Oklahoma would be listed as a threatened species. The agency justified the listing by noting that lesser prairie chicken populations have declined throughout their range by an estimated 90% since the early 20th century, from hundreds of thousands, to a total of just over 32,000 individuals today.

The northern district listing decision also included what is known as a Section 4(d) rule— a special provision for threatened species that allows certain actions to continue when those actions are not considered detrimental to the overall recovery of the species. In late January 2023, the USFWS announced it would delay implementation of that final listing rule by two months to allow additional time to ensure that livestock grazing plans and other voluntary protection measures were in place. The rule went into effect in late March, and in April was challenged by several states, citing procedural and legal defects in the rule-making process. 


Ranchers Should Receive Market-based Value to Protect and Restore Sage Grouse Habitat

Ranchers in Idaho can be key in protecting sage grouse habitat, keeping out cheatgrass

Idaho Statesman - Opinion - by Ted Koch and Wayne Walker, April 25, 2023

Of the six native prairie grouse species in North America, three are extinct or endangered and three more are close behind, especially sage grouse. The lesser-prairie chicken in the southwestern Great Plains, a sage grouse cousin, was just protected under the Endangered Species Act. Extensive loss of habitat, just like with Idaho’s sagebrush, is the threat that caused the lesser-prairie chicken to be listed. It’s a cautionary tale for our state.

Lesser prairie-chickens and sage grouse both need large blocks of wide-open prairie and sage. Stopping habitat loss and restoring lost habitat is key. For sage grouse that means stopping cheatgrass spread which leads to landscape-altering fire. Allowing ranchers to receive market-based value for sage grouse that competes against traditional development is critical to sage-grouse conservation success.

An astounding 1.3 million acres of sagebrush range are lost each year, primarily to cheatgrass. With only 32 million acres left of the 160 million acres of sagebrush originally, we’re losing both bird habitat and productive rangeland at an alarming rate.

Nearly 70,000 acres of farmland, ranches and prairies have been developed in Idaho over a 15-year period through the past decade, an area larger than Boise, according to Farm Bureau reports. Land development, fragmentation and loss of native prairie often leads to commensurate losses of our wonderful birds and grouse species — including the beloved sage grouse here.

Cheatgrass is the biggest problem, but the way to help the sage grouse is not different from what we are essentially doing for the lesser prairie-chicken to create strongholds and restore landscapes. The conservation banks are paying private ranchers a market rate, combined with a permanent easement and endowment for strategic and durable conservation.

With cheatgrass in Idaho, we must pay ranchers what they need to get the outcome the sage grouse needs. If that’s reducing stocking rates, to allow native grasses to out-compete cheat grass, we must do that. If it is paying ranchers to do targeted treatments to try and restore native grasses or manage cheat grass, we should do that.

Motivated ranchers are trying to save the lesser prairie chicken in the southwest. All they ask — very reasonably — is to be paid the market price for their work and rewarded with protection from the penalties of the Endangered Species Act. Conservation bankers like Common Ground Capital provide these payments through U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-approved Conservation Bank Agreements and Habitat Conservation Plans. The LPC landowner alliance, run by Grouse Partners, works in coordination with conservation bankers to improve farm bill programs with ranchers as well.

In sage grouse country, federal land managers also need to ensure ranchers are empowered to provide healthy sagebrush habitat and suppress cheatgrass. Then, when a fire burns, we are more likely to see the area recover as a sagebrush ecosystem like it used to, and not a cheatgrass desert.

Well-intentioned local programs funded by small government or nonprofit grants help sharpen our understanding, but they will not save the sage grouse. State mitigation programs developed years ago, unfortunately, share many of the design flaws of the 2013 vintage program created by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies for the lesser prairie chicken, which is headquartered right here in Boise. We need large-scale changes in the relationship between private and public land management.

Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the continent, and birds like these prairie grouse have declined more than in any other habitat type. It’s time to use all our tools, including durable and strategic, market incentives and new approaches to public land management, to conserve them.

Ted Koch is director of North American Grouse Partnership. He spent 29 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species biologist, mostly in Idaho, and later as assistant regional director for endangered species in the southwest. He has a master’s in zoology from Idaho State University. Wayne Walker is principal of Common Ground Capital and LPC Conservation Partners, private impact mitigation and conservation banks. He worked in the renewables and oil and gas industries and maintains an award-winning ranch in Texas. He has a master’s in environmental science from Baylor.


On March 27, Lesser Prairie-Chickens Officially Became Federally Listed as a Threatened and Endangered Species

This native emblem of southwest grasslands is now officially federally listed as a threatened species in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and northern Texas and an endangered species in New Mexico and western Texas. There is hope this listing will encourage oil, wind, solar, and transmission lines to be developed outside the range of lesser prairie-chicken and provide additional sources of funding for private lands conservation, including the ranchers whose lands are home to the birds. For more information on the listing of lesser prairie-chicken by the USFWS, click below.


The Grouse are Grooving & You Need to Get Moving! - Find A Spring Lek Viewing Opportunity by Clicking… 


Love Grouse, Their Habitats & Everything About Them? Join NAGP in "Membership March" & Be Entered in a Drawing for OnX Hunt Memberships

Membership support of the North American Grouse Partnership (NAGP) is critical to meeting our mission to conserve the birds and places we love. We appreciate all you do, from locally improving habitat to telling Congress what we need in the next Farm Bill.

Join NAGP in March and be entered into a drawing for OnX Hunt memberships. Eight lucky people will win. Much thanks to OnX for providing the memberships and their sponsorship of the "Grouse Trail - Where Wild Begins..." at the recent Pheasant Fest.

To join NAGP, click on the go “Join/Donate” tab to upper left. Then Grouse On!


The “GROUSE TRAIL - WHERE WILD BEGINS” was a Smashing Success at 2023 National Pheasant Fest in Minneapolis!


SAVE THE DATE: AMERICA’S GRASSLAND CONFERENCE IS AUGUST 8-10, 2023


November 17, 2022

Action Alert - Lesser Prairie-Chicken Listed

Ask Leaders to Sufficiently Support Conservation of Habitat on Private Land


 January 2022

Join Our Grouse Conservation Community Today!  Read NAGP’s Case Statement which shares our priorities and invites support of our mission.


December 2021

Service Approves Lesser Prairie-Chicken Habitat Conservation Plan for Renewable Energy Development in the Great Plains 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved LPC Conservation, LLC’s habitat conservation plan (HCP) and associated incidental take permit. The HCP is designed to minimize and offset impacts to the lesser prairie-chicken from renewable energy development in the Great Plains.  

The HCP will cover wind and solar project development as well as transmission lines across the lesser prairie-chicken’s range in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. LPC Conservation, LLC’s HCP will fully offset impacts from enrolled projects while providing regulatory certainty for the development of renewable energy across its range, should the lesser prairie-chicken become listed under the ESA in the future.  

Along with the final HCP, the Service is publishing a final Environmental Assessment, which evaluates the effects of issuing the ITP and addresses comments received during the public comment period. The HCP and ITP will be in effect for 30 years.  

On June 1, 2021, the Service released its proposal to list two distinct population segments of the lesser prairie-chicken under the ESA. The Service will make a final determination on the proposed listing by June 1, 2022. 

July 2021

Lesser Prairie-Chicken ESA Listing Proposal Comment Opportunity

NAGP wants you know that you have until September 1, 2021, to comment on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s proposed rule to list lesser prairie-chickens under the Endangered Species Act. Lesser prairie-chickens are one of the most threatened prairie grouse species remaining in N. America. And prairie ecosystems are the most threatened type of ecosystem on the continent. 

Lesser prairie-chickens and prairies urgently need our help.


July 2021

Lesser Prairie-Chicken ESA Listing Proposal Highlights Unmet Goals, Need for Voluntary Private Land Management


July 2021

NAGP and North American Falconers Association have signed an MOU for Conservation Work

NAGP proudly announces a new joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the North American Falconers Association (NAFA). This MOU will formally establish joint efforts to further conservation work through collaboration, communication, and interaction between NAGP and NAFA, including meeting annually. Additionally, NAFA has committed to supporting NAGP financially by up to $1,000 annually going forward. As NAGP was founded by falconers in 1999, this MOU is a nice fit for both organizations.

You can learn more about NAFA and falconry by visiting their website at http://www.N-A-F-A.com


June 2021 Op Ed
by Ted Koch, NAGP Executive Director
Gambling with Species Extinction


 

Join or Renew your NAGP membership to add your "Voice" to grouse conservation!

Donate now to ensure that grouse will have a positive future in North America for many generations!