Team begins grouse study

By WHITNEY ROYSTER
Star-Tribune environmental reporter

JACKSON -- An independent research group is jumping in to the sage grouse fray, trying to determine the impact of predators, humans and Mother Nature on the birds.

Craighead Beringia South, a research and educational institute based in Kelly, has received about $62,000 from the state to begin a three-year project looking at sage grouse in the Jackson area, and in two areas of the Upper Green River Valley.

The institute will be the first to put GPS transmitters on sage grouse and ravens to watch the interplay between certain predators and prey. Already, researchers have seen sage grouse move fairly large distances, according to Howard Quigley, executive director and senior ecologist with Beringia South.

Quigley said people count birds on their breeding grounds, or leks, as an indication of population, and it is possible the birds are moving among the leks. He said the research will, in part, show if birds are being counted twice because of lek interchange.

The research comes as the state is developing sage grouse conservation plans. Sage grouse have been declining in the West, and work is ongoing to protect habitat and prevent the bird from being federally protected.

Quigley said the research on grouse "should have been started five years ago," but Beringia is working to study lek breeding -- sites that include the Ryegrass area in Pinedale, and the Pinedale Anticline. The Anticline represents an area with sage grouse that is intensely developed; the Ryegrass and Jackson areas are places with little or no development.

Some solutions to sage grouse problems are being floated, including reducing the number of oil and gas wells, utilizing mat drilling and not operating drill rigs during breeding and nesting season. Heavy predator control is also used in an effort to protect sage grouse.

Quigley said the research will look at the "big picture" to determine impacts to the birds.

"The easiest thing is to blame the most obvious potential cause other than yourself," he said. Ravens are an obvious impact, as are derricks where predator birds can perch.

The research is also expected to show what habitat characteristics are most important to sage grouse and reproduction, and what impact humans have.

"The idea is to put a finger in the dike and find a place for the bird and for development," Quigley said.

John Marzluff, professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington, is also cooperating in the study. His work, with a student stationed in Pinedale, will look at the interplay between grouse and ravens.

He said he hopes to determine what sort of features of the landscape affect raven populations, including where people grow crops, where there is roadkill or water, and where the natural landscape favors ravens.

"They are perceived to be an important predator," Marzluff said. "So first we want to find out what controls ravens; second, how big an effect ravens have on sage grouse."

The GPS transmitters cost about $4,000 each, and there are four on sage grouse and six on ravens, Quigley said.

There has been a long-term decline in sage grouse populations, but mid- and short-term bumps in localized areas in Wyoming, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Trends vary by location.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.

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