A sneaky, last-minute rider added to the federal government's 1,603-page spending bill blocks federal endangered species protections to the Gunnison sage-grouse and the greater sage-grouse. I know COBIRDS isn't for politics, but it's not for putting our heads in the sand, either. Colorado is the last best place on Earth for the Gunnison sage-grouse. Eight years ago, our state had 6,220 Gunnison sage-grouse in eight separate areas. Last year, biologists counted 4,773 birds in seven areas. Numbers go up and down year-to-year. Colorado has had two decades to protect the bird, but the species remains in deep trouble. Several colonies of Gunnison sage-grouse have gone extinct in the years that Colorado state officials have promised to protect the species. Now that the feds are stepping in, pols in Washington slipped in an unpublicized paragraph this week to head off federal protections of the birds. It would be awful to have a home-state species go extinct on our watch. There are real conflicts between the greater sage-grouse and oil-and-gas development across the West. However, the Gunnison sage-grouse does not face a similar conflict. The Gunnison sage-grouse once lived in Four Corners areas that now have much petroleum development, but those bird colonies are now extinct. Here is a link to one of many of tonight's news stories on the last-minute congressional rider: Bye bye birdie
| | | | | | | | | | | Bye bye birdieBefore lawmakers could agree to a $1.1 trillion, last-minute deal to avoid shutting down the U.S. government, they first had to deal with a couple of birds. The res... | | | | View on www.politico.com | Preview by Yahoo | | | | | Good birding, Mark ObmascikDenver, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/2036367205.8233470.1418273959563.JavaMail.yahoo%40jws10608.mail.bf1.yahoo.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
