bye bye birdie....sage grouse not to be listed

[Guest guest]

Western sage grouse will not be protected under ESA

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the sage

grouse, a large game bird with the unlucky habit of residing on top

of large natural-gas deposits, will not be listed as threatened under

the Endangered Species Act. Never mind that the species' numbers

have declined from millions to as few as 142,000. Agency spokesfolks

emphasized that state and private conservation efforts are still

encouraged. Responded Mark Salvo of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign,

" Local conservation plans are mostly window dressing and are

insufficient to save the grouse. " Business groups and conservative

Western lawmakers exulted at the decision -- a listing under the ESA

would have placed severe restrictions on the use of land slated by

the Bush administration for vigorous oil and gas development.

 

straight to the source: The Denver Post, Theo Stein, 07 Jan 2005

<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3961>

 

straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press,

Ananda Shorey, 07 Jan 2005

<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3962>