A scientist from the University of Alberta says unrestrained gas development in southern Alberta could wipe out the sage grouse population in the province within two years.
Mark Boyce has studied sage grouse since 1977, but he might be lacking a study subject soon – an estimated 90 birds remain in the province.
“They’re going very fast,” Boyce said. “Last year, we had twice as many birds as we have this year and the year before that we had almost twice as many as that. This will be the first case where the oil and gas industry has caused the extirpation of a species from Alberta.”
Sage Grouse photo from Wiki
In a paper published in the Journal of Wildlife Management last week, Boyce and his co-authors Jennifer Carpenter and Cameron Aldridge say sage grouse avoid energy development.
The birds won’t come within 1.9 kilometres of an oil or gas well, Boyce said. Given the widespread nature of the industry in the area, that doesn’t leave the bird with much habitat.
“The effect of a gas well extends out for 1.9 kilometres from the well site itself, and that’s not to mention the effects of the roads and power lines that go in. That area is just being riddled and fragmented into little tiny pieces by gas development. We’ve known this is a serious problem for five years, but the province has failed to do anything about it.”
Sage grouse in Alberta and Saskatchewan are at the northernmost extent of their range, so if those two provinces both lose the species, it would be considered extinct in Canada.
Boyce said the government needs to make sure the grouse have access to critical sagebrush habitat, which has already been identified. It’s all they eat during winters and they also nest and rear their broods in sagebrush landscapes.
Alberta Ministry spokesman Dave Ealey said the department is working on a comprehensive land-use approach to save the bird, that includes working with industry to make sure attention is given to the most important grouse habitat. At the rate our government moves on environmental issues, the birds will be long gone by the time they actually do anything.
Ealey also said they’re talking to Saskatchewan and Montana to get a translocation program going.
Are they kidding? If they haven’t saved any habitat for the sage grouse already here, why in the world would they bring in more birds? So they can die in Alberta?
Maybe…just for a change…the Alberta government could actually READ what the experts are recommending when it comes to wildlife conservation. That would be a really nice change.
We have the same problem in the US in gas-producing states. Somehow the Sage Grouse has managed to stay off the endangered list, though.