And theses ensue:
Now, federal officials are weighing putting [the sage grouse] on the endangered species list — setting off a mad scramble among the unlikeliest of allies to save the bird and avoid disrupting the nation’s enormous growth in energy production. With a range stretching over more than 165 million resource-rich acres across 11 states, the grouse is at the center of one of the country’s most important struggles: to balance the demand for energy against the needs of nature. And in the process, it has put two environmental priorities — preserving species and fostering renewable energy — on a collision course.
“Remember the economic impact of the spotted owl and how much it reduced timber production on federal lands?” Representative Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, said in an interview. “The sage grouse has seven times the acreage of the spotted owl. You are looking at billions of dollars in lost economic activity, millions of dollars in lost state and local revenues and tens of thousands of jobs being lost.”
Environmentalists say the only way to save the grouse is to restrict use of the lands — whether for energy, housing, mining, ranching, hunting or recreation — which is exactly what an endangered species designation would do. Already, federal officials have delayed, altered or denied permits for more than two dozen energy projects in the West because of the bird. …
That prospect has prompted an unusual collaboration among state and industry leaders to show federal wildlife officials, who have until September 2015 to decide on the endangered designation, how the bird can coexist with economic development. And federal officials, frequently at odds with one another over such matters in the past, are in on the act, overseeing an enormous effort among all the affected states to pre-empt the designation.
via www.nytimes.com
Remember preemptive harvesting? If you were suspicious that you might have a red-cockaded woodpecker on your land then you would go ahead and cut down your longleaf pine trees ahead of the optimal rotation.The difference here is that the natural resource is underground and you can't destroy the habitat (well, you can but the birds are already there) before the species is put on the endangered list.
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