http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-21/1243803929142160.xml&storylist=orlocal May 31 2009
BEND, Ore. (AP) — The Bureau of Land Management is using some stimulus money to study the effect of wind farms on a dwindling sage grouse population in Central Oregon . . .
Sage grouse numbers in Oregon last year were at their lowest in a decade but may be rebounding in some areas.
"2008 was not a good year for sage grouse, there's no question," said Christian Hagen, the sage grouse coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
It is difficult to gauge the population from spring counts. The sage grouse population in 2008 fell to an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 birds in 2008, less than half the estimate from 2005.
There was talk of including the sage grouse on the federal endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to visit the question again, Hagen said.
Hagen said reasons for the decline could be drought, invasive plants and encroaching junipers, West Nile virus and human activities. . .
State biologists have recommended siting wind turbines at least three miles from sage grouse breeding habitat, but in March, Crook County approved a proposed $220 million wind farm closer to the birds. . .
Crook County Judge Mike McCabe said the birds don't fly high enough to hit the turbine propellers.
So far it looks like numbers in the center of the sage grouse's Oregon range, Malheur, Harney and Lake counties, are up a little, he said. . .
