REGION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A7
Reducing roadkill a possible savior for sage grouse
Ravens attracted by
carcasses also eat
sage grouse eggs
and chicks
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Jill Anna Greenberg/Philadelphia Inquirer-TNS
Carcasses of roadkilled deer can attract scavengers, including ravens.
Nick Myatt/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, File
A male sage grouse infl ates the air sacs in its breast and fans its tail
feathers as part of the bird’s elaborate spring courting ritual.
She said Oregon
being added to the com-
a win-win situation for
Department of Transpor-
post process.
everyone,” Virtue said.
tation (ODOT) crews can’t
He said he’d like to have
Henry said Baker San-
be expected to pick up car- the company contribute
itary Service would also
casses and haul them to a
to the eff ort to potentially
need to ensure it has a
processing site.
reliable supply of
The proposed
woody material
place for that is
to add to the mix,
Baker Sanitary Ser-
as an increase in
vice’s landfi ll near
meat and other food
Sutton Creek, a few
wastes would need
to be off set by wood
miles southeast of
debris to ensure
Baker City off Old
the proper ratio
Highway 30.
to produce usable
The idea, Defrees
compost.
said, is to turn
Virtue said Baker
the carcasses into
— Dallas Hall Defrees, coordinator, Baker
Sanitary is still
compost.
County Sage Grouse Local Implementation
looking at the best
Ace Clark, man-
Team
way to sell, or oth-
ager for ODOT’s
erwise make use
District 13, which
of, the compost it
includes Baker
produces.
County, said he has met
benefi t sage grouse and
One possible option
with Defrees and Baker
create another source of
is to use the material to
Sanitary Service offi cials
material for the compost
improve the condition of
about the proposal, most
processing.
soils in rangelands in the
recently on Jan. 13.
“If we can help out
area, he said.
Clark said ODOT does
and do a good thing, it’s
not plan to use any of the
LIT’s Lottery money to do
any work in Baker County
in collecting and hauling
carcasses. He said ODOT
did give Defrees and Baker
Sanitary Service informa-
tion about the composting
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carcasses present a dif-
ferent challenge, he said,
because they would need
to be ground up before
“If we can deter
ravens from being
there, it would be
highly benefi cial for
sage grouse.”
Dealing with ravens
is not so simple as sum-
moning a group of volun-
teers with shotguns. That’s
because ravens, unlike
sage grouse, are protected
under the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act.
That federal law does
allow government agencies
to apply for permits to kill
ravens, however.
In Baker County, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice and ODFW last year
started a two-year project
to remove raven nests
in and near sage grouse
habitat in Baker County,
Defrees said.
Depending on how
eff ective that tactic is at
curbing raven populations,
the agencies could also
use a permit to kill ravens,
Defrees said.
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E
T
Carcass conundrum
Although other animals
are killed by cars, deer are
the biggest animals fre-
quently hit on Highway 86
east of Baker City.
The challenges, Defrees
said, are how to gather the
carcasses in a timely way,
and then what to do with
them.
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Sage grouse, which are
about the size of a chicken,
have been a candidate for
federal protection for more
than a decade.
In September 2015 the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice decided not to list
the bird as threatened or
endangered.
But environmental
groups have repeatedly
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Reducing raven
numbers
asked the federal govern-
ment to classify the bird as
a threatened or endangered
species, a decision that
could curtail activities,
including cattle grazing
and motorized vehicle
use on public land, that
could degrade sage grouse
habitat.
According to ODFW’s
2021 sage grouse report,
the estimated popula-
tion of the birds in Baker
County (and a small part
of southern Union County)
in the spring of that year
was 704. That’s a 42.6%
increase from the esti-
mate of 494 birds in spring
2020, but the report notes
that this increase “was
likely a result of the anal-
ysis methodology used
to generate population
estimates.”
The report states that
sage grouse populations in
the county have risen since
2014, including an average
annual increase of 1.7% in
the number of male grouse
at “leks” — the open areas
where the birds gather
each spring and where the
males perform the species’
elaborate courting ritual,
which includes infl ating
air sacs in their breasts and
fanning their tail feathers.
However, between 2005
and 2021, among leks that
were surveyed in both
years, the number of males
present declined by 81%.
“This area has expe-
rienced a long-term pop-
ulation decline and has
remained stagnant in
recent years,” the report
states.
RD
as much time in that area
(that includes sage grouse
habitat).”
Sage grouse tend to
remain in relatively small
areas, Defrees said, so
the consistent presence
of ravens can constitute
an ongoing threat to the
grouse.
Defrees said Oregon
State University
researchers are studying,
in the Cow Valley area
along Highway 26 in
northern Malheur County,
the eff ects on raven con-
centrations by removing
roadkilled animals.
TH
Christopher Bruno/Contributed Photo, File
Ravens are opportunistic feeders that will eat sage grouse eggs and
chicks.
N
BAKER COUNTY —
The connection between
a dead deer rotting on the
roadside, a live raven and
a live (or budding) sage
grouse is a somewhat cir-
cuitous one.
And not just because
only two of the three
things are birds.
Sometimes, though, this
trio forges a link of sorts,
and the only one that pros-
pers from the confl uence is
the raven.
The deer, obviously, is
already gone.
The problem, said
Dallas Hall Defrees, coor-
dinator for the Baker
County Sage Grouse Local
Implementation Team
(LIT), is that the deer car-
cass can attract ravens,
which then tend to stay
in the area, searching for
other easy meals.
Including sage grouse
eggs.
Or recently hatched
sage grouse chicks.
Research has shown
that ravens can be a sig-
nifi cant predator on sage
grouse eggs and chicks,
Defrees said.
“Ravens are very
opportunistic,” she said.
A survey in the spring
of 2016 in some of Baker
County’s best sage grouse
habitat, mainly east of
Baker City including the
Virtue Flat and Keating
areas, showed raven pop-
ulations were high enough
to potentially pose a threat
to sage grouse.
Research suggests that
ravens pose a particular
threat when their popu-
lation densities exceed
0.7 birds per square kilo-
meter, Lee Foster, then
the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife’s
(ODFW) sage grouse con-
servation coordinator, said
in 2016.
The 2016 ODFW survey
between April 1 and May
30 — when sage grouse
are nesting — yielded
a preliminary popula-
tion density estimate of
0.9 ravens per square
kilometer.
Identifying, and trying
to mitigate, threats to
sage grouse is the focus
of the eff ort that Defrees,
a Baker County native, is
coordinating.
That campaign is spear-
headed by a six-year,
$6.2 million grant from
the Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board that
started in 2019. The money
comes from Oregon Lot-
tery revenue.
Defrees said the road-
kill project, which is in its
preliminary stages and has
no defi nite timeline, aims
to reduce the number of
raven-attracting carcasses
along Highway 86, which
runs east from Baker City
and bisects some of the
county’s best sage grouse
habitat.
“If we can deter ravens
from being there, it would
be highly benefi cial for
sage grouse,” Defrees said.
She emphasized,
though, that curbing the
presence of carcasses is, at
best, a partial solution.
“This is not to say this
is going to solve our raven
problem, because it’s
not,” she said. “But it is a
deterrent. If we’re doing a
good job of denying food
sources to ravens, they’ll
have to travel farther,
and probably not spend
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