Lessons from the sage-grouse: Collaboration is key to rare species recovery

Recently, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that protection for the Greater Sage-Grouse under the Endangered Species Act is no longer warranted. Further, the species is being withdrawn from the candidate species list. This constructive reaction to tremendously successful conservation planning and management should serve as a model for conservation.

The unprecedented collaboration among landowners, states, federal agencies, industries, conservation groups and individuals involved in sage-grouse conservation across the vastness of eleven Western states should not be an isolated instance, but the norm. We need to view it as a model for effectively protecting biodiversity.

As policymakers consider the future of the Endangered Species Act, lessons from the Greater Sage-Grouse resurgence and other conservation successes should be central to managing species.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA), enacted in 1973, was a reaction to growing awareness that our wildlife heritage was at risk. It was designed to be the emergency room for wildlife in crisis. When we engage in collaborative conservation, we’re doing the preventive work we need to do to keep wildlife and plant species from declining well before they need protection under the ESA.

Another striking example of success because of private partnership is the decision to remove the Louisiana black bear from threatened status. Commitments made by farm and forest landowners in multiple states in the Mississippi Delta turned the tide of landowner opinion from concern to acceptance. After several years the presence of the bear on private land habitat was seen as an asset not a liability. Now there are several thousands of Louisiana black bears back in the delta.

These cases illustrate how Americans are adept at working proactively and creatively to maintain and grow wildlife and plant populations so species don’t require regulatory interventions of the ESA. In some situations, government agricultural agencies with landowner experience and cost-share cash resources can provide meaningful incentives to jumpstart a broader array of habitat improvements. These and other examples show that we’re especially successful when communities, businesses, private landowners and other interests have a clear stake in the conservation of species and are committed to their recovery.

A report released by Sand County Foundation highlights some of the important players and factors that have led to wildlife conservation successes in the U.S. The report details how collaboratively, conservation actions can result in the removal of a species from the Endangered Species list or candidacy to be listed. The collaborative work that resulted in a decision to not list the Greater Sage-Grouse must become the “new normal” as we address thousands of declining species in the decades to come.

Knight, principal of Strategic Conservation Solutions, served as chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service from 2002 to 2006. He serves on the board of directors of Sand County Foundation. He is a third-generation rancher and farmer and lifelong conservationist.