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14 CapitalPress.com September 25, 2015 Federal agencies consider sage grouse in firefighting strategies By SCOTT SONNER and MEAD GRUVER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Federal agencies deciding how to deploy firefighters during one of the West’s worst wildfire seasons are consid- ering a new factor in their delibera- tions: an imperiled bird that inhabits a vast stretch of sagebrush from Cali- fornia to the Dakotas. Officials have already mapped out the greater sage grouse’s habitat west of the Rockies, where wildfire is con- sidered a primary threat to the bird. They’ve positioned semi-trailer sized water containers in areas that need protecting. And wildlife biologists are advising firefighters. The shift in strategy came even as Interior Secretary Sally Jewell tele- graphed that the bird was unlikely to be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made that official in an announce- ment Sept. 22. The new strategy paid off in Au- gust. Firefighters were able to quick- ly protect all but about 1,000 acres of priority habitat during a 10,000-acre fire 120 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada, said Walter Herzog, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s fire management officer for Northern California. There’s now an “acknowledg- ment that we are all sort of in this together,” said Nancy Haug, a BLM district manager in Nevada. “The fire team comes in now, understands the issue and is as interested as we are in trying to do the right thing in sage grouse habitat.” The Interior Department, which includes Fish and Wildlife, has been keen to highlight government work to avoid listing the ground-dwelling bird because the stakes are high. Biologists consider sage grouse the ecosystem’s “indicator species” Adam Eschbach/The Idaho Press-Tribune via AP A plane helps put out a wildfire near the Reynolds Creek area in the Owyhee Moun- tains, Idaho, on Aug. 14. It scorched grassland ranchers need to feed cattle and primary habitat for sage grouse. — or barometer of the health of its habitat — as the northern spotted owl is in Northwest old-growth for- ests. Much like how federal protection for the spotted owl 25 years ago has impeded logging, federal protection for sage grouse could restrict energy development and grazing across the Intermountain West. “Some people wish it wasn’t, but it’s a huge deal,” said Ron Dunton, assistant director of fire and aviation for the BLM. “If it’s listed, I tell peo- ple it will be the spotted owl times 50.” Nobody pretends this year’s initial efforts to protect sage grouse habitat from fire in Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and California will make or break the bird. But officials hope an overdue investment in preventing and fighting fires will save money — and an imperiled ecosystem. Wildfire is considered less of a threat than energy development in the bird’s eastern range — Colora- do, Wyoming, Montana and portions of the Dakotas — but eventually the government will apply the wildfire strategy there, too. Across the Great Basin, a fire- prone, invasive weed called cheat- grass has intermingled with sage- brush. Federal land managers hope to break a “fire-cheatgrass cycle” in which cheatgrass fuels unnaturally intense fires that kill sagebrush, en- abling still more cheatgrass to invade. Fighting invasive species with well-managed cattle grazing and seeding with native plants is a big part of the new approach that eventually will encompass the entire sagebrush steppe ecosystem covering an area of the West almost as big as Texas. “There’s a lot of native vegetation that could grow in if given a chance,” said Mike Archer, a wildfire consul- tant and blogger in Glendora, Calif. “The problem is the cheatgrass is so hardy a breed that it just pushes ev- erything else out.” Not all sagebrush habitat is equal, however. Some has little cheatgrass and is in good shape to rebound from fire. Other areas would require a major effort to restore after a wildfire. The Interior Department has classified sagebrush across the Great Basin to help firefighters decide which areas make the most sense to save. “The first rule of thumb: Protect what is left. That is what we are try- ing to do — through strategy and planning — prevent further habitat loss,” Deputy Assistant U.S. Interior Secretary James Lyons said. Lyons said he took notice when Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe candidly shared his big- gest concern about the bird’s future. “He said that unless we can get a handle on fire, we may not be able to reach a point where we can be con- fident we can conserve the species,” Lyons recalled. Firefighting now eats up more than half of the U.S. Forest Service budget. The BLM completed a “bud- get scrub” to reallocate resources for the sagebrush effort west of the Rockies. John Freemuth, a Boise State Uni- versity professor and public lands ex- pert, said firefighters could question the government’s priorities under the new policy. “If there’s a habitat issue versus property, how do they reconcile that? How do they allocate resources when, as we’ve seen in the last few weeks, those resources are limited?” Freemuth said. Dunton, the BLM’s assistant fire and aviation director, insisted field supervisors will decide where to de- ploy. “I’ve been a line officer and a field officer, and those would not be easy decisions to make. But they cannot be made from Boise, Idaho,” Dunton said, referring to the National Inter- agency Fire Center government fire- fighting headquarters. “It’s a bit of a cultural change,” he added. “But it’s just something that’s necessary.” Ranch uses wastewater to survive the drought By JEFF DELONG Reno Gazette-Journal RENO, Nev. (AP) — At Douglas County’s Bently Ranch, these days the backup is squarely up front. Reclaimed wastewater is used to water crops late every irrigation season, but this year, during a pro- tracted drought, it’s largely what’s keeping the place in the business of agriculture. “If we were just on surface wa- ter, we would have stopped irrigat- ing a month ago. We’d be dry,” said Matt McKinney, ranch manager. “Now we can go all summer long. It’s a lifesaver.” It was a decade ago that the ranch’s founder, inventor and philanthropist Donald Bently, first signed a contract with the sewer districts serving Minden-Gardnerv- ille and Lake Tahoe’s Zephyr Cove area to receive effluent water for ir- rigation use. All winter long, treated waste- water is pumped from the two sewer districts to a reservoir built on ranch property. Come summer, the water is used to irrigate Bently Ranch’s primary crop, high-quality alfalfa hay, which is in turn sold as cattle feed to dairy farms in Cali- fornia. Bently Ranch also receives “bio- solids” from the wastewater plants — a combination of fecal matter and household garbage put down sink disposals — which is com- bined with wood chips and green yard waste to ultimately produce fertilizer in the only such major composting operation now existing in Northern Nevada. It’s agriculture with a full-circle, sustainable philosophy that is now paying off big-time. “There’s a lot of REPUBLIC, Wash. — money invested in In her two decades as these animals,” said a 4-H leader in Ferry Ann Fagerlie, WSU County, Kari Neal has Extension director for never seen a fire neighboring Okanogan season like this. Even County. in 1988, with the White Mountain fire “Kids who do a better raging on nearby job have animals that Sherman Pass, the gain weight and Ferry County Fair flourish better than went on as usual. those who don’t,” Neal said. Those animals “The kids had sooty advance in judging and ash falling on their get a prime place at the Linda McLean, director of Colville Reservation animals, which were Extension 4-H programs, and Marilyn Signor, A Colville Reservation 4-H club weekend stock sale. all clean for fitting member handles his market pig during “The lesson is you get office assistant, wear masks to protect and showing,” she last year’s Ferry County Fair. (Photo from smoky air in Nespelem. out of a project what remembered. “We just themselves by Linda McLean, WSU Extension) (Photo courtesy of Colville Reservation Extension) you put into it. went with it.” “Kids could take a financial loss if the animals are sold for just This year is different. Faced with the threat of the North Star the meat-packing price and don’t have the support of Fire, which burned more than 200,000 acres and threatened individuals and businesses that normally come out to support many homes, Ferry County commissioners on Aug. 25 them and the ribbons they’ve earned by buying the animals for canceled the 72nd annual fair. Trevor Lane, director of meat”. Washington State University Extension for Ferry County said holding a fair just wasn’t safe. To counteract that loss, Ferry County Extension officials organized a 4-H Market Sale for Ferry County and Colville “It doesn’t make sense to bring people into a county where Reservation 4-H members on Sept. 5, at the Northeast we’re telling people to leave,” he said. “We are completely Washington Fair Grounds in Colville. It took place the same surrounded by fires.” day that 4-H youth would have held their fair sale. Twenty miles to the east, the Kettle and Colville complexes “We’re doing it because time is of the essence,” Lane said at the charred 73,000 acres. To the west, the Okanogan and Tunk time. “These kids may not have the resources to continue to Block complexes burned more than a quarter-million acres in the largest wildfire in state history. Statewide, dozens of blazes support these animals.” The sale is also a morale booster, providing “a sense of normalcy,” in a very stressful season, he consumed more than a thousand square miles of timberland, said. grassland, pasture and residential areas. The Washington State 4-H Foundation is taking donations to The Ferry County fairgrounds served as temporary shelter for support 4-H clubs and families affected by wildfires. displaced livestock before high winds forced a total Contributions pay for members’ loss of club supplies, project evacuation. materials or livestock projects. An application is being designed The loss of a fair could deliver a big impact on 4-H youth. and will be available online soon for the families and clubs to Children and teens have spent the past year raising animals for submit a request for contributed funds. market. Fair judging and sales are a culmination and a reward for youths raising cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, with greater Learn more at http://www.4h.wsu.edu/foundation . effort meriting larger rewards. 39-2/#13