As a potential plan to manage sage grouse awaits review and approval from Governor Matt Mead, Sweetwater County seeks to extend recognition of a core habitat to the rim of White Mountain.
At their next meeting, the county will vote on a resolution supporting the expansion of core habitat area to White Mountain’s rim, and if approved will be sent to Gov. Mead’s office in Cheyenne. If the governor believes the core habitat area should be extended, he has the power to do so before finalizing and officially recognizing core sage grouse habitats in Wyoming. The core areas are an attempt to avoid having sage grouse placed on the endangered species list.
Commissioner Wally Johnson, speaking about sage grouse Tuesday, said the bird’s inclusion on the endangered species list could cost private industry and local governments between $2 billion and $4 billion. Johnson also spoke against an unnamed “key” representative in the local oil and gas industry siding against the county’s viewpoint on sage grouse core habitat on White Mountain.
“When we(the county commissioners) speak, I think we should carry more weight than some of the other interests,” Johnson said.
The recommendation is the result of a 30-bird lek found near White Mountain in 2010. The lek’s influence, while not as strong as a larger, 100-bird lek, expanded close to the mountain’s rim, with multiple bird sightings reported along the rim itself. The lek’s population has since dropped to nine birds during a more recent survey of the area, but was recommended for protection by both the southwest working group and the state’s Sage Grouse Implementation Team’s mapping committee.
However, during the May 6 Sage Grouse Implementation Team meeting, objections raised by the Rock Springs Grazing Association, one of the three landowners owning property along White Mountain, raised objections to the habitat extension. The objections, along with the lek’s population decline resulted in the team voting down its inclusion.
The letter, signed by John Hay III, president of the RSGA, states the association objects to modification of sage grouse core habitat area on White Mountain, claiming boundary change “appears to be justified on the termination of the wind energy project of Tasco Engineering, and associated private leases.” The RSGA claim the habitat boundary extension is aimed to eliminate any potential wind energy project on checkerboard lands owned by the RSGA.
The letter also states a number of political and economic issues have resulted in Tasco Engineering to abandon its wind project and delay construction of the Gateway Transmission Line, a 500 kilovolt power line stretching from Wyoming to Idaho.
“It appears the recommended core area boundary changes are an attempt to eliminate the option, and circumvent the resource decision process, for RSGA and other land managers of the checkerboard regarding future study and development for wind energy on White Mountain,” Hay wrote.
On May 19, the county sent a letter to Mary Flanderka, habitat protection supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, arguing against the implementation team’s decision. The letter, signed by Johnson, states the two wind projects proposed for White Mountain, as well as any permits for the projects, have since expired. Those expirations, along with bird sightings in the area, resulted in the southwest working group recommending the mountain’s rim for core habitat inclusion. The
Approximately 37 percent of the county’s total land, encompassing 2.4 million acres, are included in proposed sage grouse core areas.
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