Oil and sage grouse grousing...




The greater sage grouse has bedeviled Texas oil and gas companies trying to drill in the high plains of the western United States for more than a decade.

In September Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell announced that her agency would not place the grouse on the federal endangered species list that would block drilling on the bird’s expansive habitat.

But, an alternative federal conservation plan has set off a whole new fight. Conservationists argue that a sweeping sage grouse conservation effort that the government announced is riddled with loopholes and will not be enough to protect the bird from extinction, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho.

On the other side of the political spectrum several legal challenges have been filed against the same rules. Mining companies, ranchers and officials in Utah, Idaho and Nevada argue that the administration’s actions will impede economic development.

Western lawmakers are complaining that a far-off bureaucracy is trying to make rules for a region it doesn’t know or understand.

The Bureau of Land Management has identified 67 million acres of federal lands as sage grouse territory, capping the amount of land that can be drilled for gas, grazed by cattle or sited for a wind farm at 3.5 million acres.

Sage brush, in which the grouse nest, was decimated by overgrazing of cattle and sheep throughout the 1990s and later by oil and gas drilling, mining and other development.

The ground-dwelling sage grouse, known for their elaborate mating ritual, range across a 257,000-square-mile region spanning 11 states.

Oil and gas lease sales across the West have been delayed while the new conservation rules are finalized.

It is interesting to note that listing the sage grouse as endangered is not supported by every environmental group. The sage grouse was an obscure species for many years. Some conservationists are surprised the bird has inspired so much passion.

 




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Lake Texoma

Fishing Report from TPWD (Mar. 27)

GOOD. Water normal stain; 57 degrees; 1.86 feet below pool. Striped bass are good using live shad and cut bait anchored in 45-65 feet of water thumping the boat and running a splasher to get the fish under the boat. Recent rains will have a lot of big female fish up river but look for them on flats and structure with swim baits in 12-25 feet of water. Crappie are good on jigs using electronics to fish brush in the little mineral arm 15-22 feet of water. Also seeing fish in the creeks 2-4 feet of water on brush. Smallmouth or largemouth bass are slow fishing docks and structure with crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Look for SM on gravel beds along the bluffs in 6-12 feet of water. Catfish are slow on cut gizzard shad anchored near the rivers in 5-10 feet of water but starting to see eater size fish coming on ledges and flats in 40-55 feet of water. Report by Jacob Orr, Guaranteed Guide Service Lake Texoma. Striped bass continue to be caught with Alabama rigs or sassy shad targeting ledges and structures in 5-40 feet of water. Some sporadic schooling activity and bird action. Some fish are moving into creeks. The shad spawn should begin as the water near 68 degrees. This runs around six weeks, bringing predator fish shallow and kicks off topwater season. Report by John Blasingame, Adventure Texoma Outdoors.

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