By Gail Binkly

Joining the struggle to save the remnants of a dwindling species, the La Plata Open Space Conservancy has purchased 150 acres of land near Dove Creek to preserve it as habitat for the Gunnison sage grouse.

The tract adjoins 71 acres the conservancy purchased last year for the same purpose.

The Gunnison sage grouse, which biologists now believe is a distinct species separate from the more common northern sage grouse, has been reduced to about 4,000 birds scattered among eight sites in southwestern Colorado and southern Utah.

The Dove Creek area is one such site; some 70 to 100 of the birds exist there, according to the last official count in spring of 1998.

However, they face the same threats that they do throughout the West: encroachment by humans and their pet dogs and cats; increased predation from hawks and eagles as those species rebound; new roads and increased traffic that prevent the grouse from walking freely throughout their terrain; and, most of all, the disappearance or degradation of the sagebrush habitat they need to exist.

"The reason we bought these pieces is there’s a lot of land in that area which is appropriate for sage grouse," said Katharine Roser, executive director of the conservancy. "These birds are about to be listed as an endangered species if they don’t make a comeback."

Sage grouse, colloquially known as sage hens, once roamed throughout much of the West. They existed in Montezuma County until a few decades ago, according to biologists, but have since become extinct here.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife launched a multi-agency effort several years ago to save the remaining birds and possibly forestall U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intervention, which could mean major restrictions on land uses in likely sage-grouse habitat.

Terry Ireland, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Grand Junction, said Friday that there have indeed been rumors that an environmental group is planning to petition the service as early as this fall to list the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered or threatened.

If a petition is presented to the service, Ireland said, "what we do is review the petition to see if there is substantial information indicating a listing is warranted." That finding is made in 90 days.

Then, if justification is found for an endangered or threatened listing, notice is sent out and public comments are taken.

"We look at those comments and at other information we can dig up, and come up with a 12-month finding, and that’s where we say it’s warranted or not warranted for listing, or it’s precluded by higher warranted priorities." The latter means that other species may be given higher priority, particularly if the listing is sought for a population of an animal that is common elsewhere.

However, in the case of the Gunnison sage grouse, that might not be likely, considering that there are so few of the birds in existence.

It has only been in the past decade or so that the Gunnison bird has been determined to be a separate species from the larger, northern sage grouse. A study in the 1980s and another in the early ‘90s found major differences between the two types of grouse, and a genetics expert at the University of Denver later concluded that DNA showed they were distinct species.

A report on that finding is due to be published soon, Ireland said.

The largest population of Gunnison sage grouse, consisting of roughly 3,000, lives in the Gunnison Basin, while the smallest -- about 50 -- is around Monticello, Ireland said. Conservation plans are being developed for each of the different sites. A plan for the Dove Creek population was completed in December 1998.

Ireland said, if the locally based plans are working to help the birds rebound, it’s possible the service might not proceed with an endangered listing.

"We can use the conservation plans and, more importantly, the actions implemented under those plans to address the threats to the species," Ireland said. "If we believe that the actions are addressing the threats adequately, there’s a chance we wouldn’t have to list the species."

As part of the Dove Creek conservation strategy, the DOW has leased a number of properties surrounding the land purchased by the conservancy and is already managing those areas for sage grouse. However, the 150-acre tract, which is considered a migratory area and fair nesting habitat for the birds, was only available for sale, Roser said.

"They were afraid it would sell and be broken up into ranchettes," she said.

So, using a grant from the Mid-America Pipeline Company, the conservancy bought the land for $71,000. The smaller tract was purchased with another grant from MAPCO for approximately $35,000, Roser said. The company is seeking to mitigate disturbances to wildlife resulting from its construction of a natural-gas-liquids pipeline north of the sage-grouse habitat.

Outright land buys are rare for the conservancy, which normally uses conservation easements and other legal measures that preserve open space but leave it in private hands.

"They’re the first purchases we’ve made for land that we will hold on to," she said. "We have made three other purchases and transferred that land to public agencies. We’ll hold this land at least as long as it takes to determine the success or failure of the sage-grouse rehabilitation project."

The conservancy will work with the DOW to develop a management program for the tracts that will include revegetation of the former farmland to provide better grouse habitat, Roser said.

Bringing the birds back from the brink of extinction will require a long-term effort, biologists say. However, the news this year was encouraging.

Although the final numbers have yet to be compiled into an official report, the bird count done last spring showed an increase, according to Scott Wait, terrestrial wildlife biologist for the DOW in Durango.

"Based on one particular count that Dave (Harper, also of the DOW) made, survival last winter was very good," Wait said. "It made it look like we might have at least a stable if not an increasing population near Dove Creek, and that’s going into the nesting season.

"Based on blue grouse and turkey, it should have been a good nesting season for sage grouse over there, so it’s a very optimistic outlook right now."

Harper agreed.

"The counts were higher, and we took that as a positive note," he said. "It’s been a great year for sage grouse, with the rain we had. There were a lot of forbs and grass and cover for the chicks, and more insects for them to feed on.