If approved by Montana Wildlife Officials, 40 Sage Grouse could be relocated to the Province of Alberta to help boost a declining provincial population. A recent Winnipeg Free Press article states that,
“If the first group of relocated birds thrives, wildlife managers intend to ship 60 more sage grouse each year to Alberta for up to three years, said Mark Sullivan, wildlife program manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Sage grouse are classified as endangered in Canada. In Alberta, their numbers have declined by about 80 per cent in recent decades as open land has been developed for agriculture and energy production.” Entire Article Here
The article also states this will be the first time that wildlife will have been transferred to Canada from northeastern Montana.
Some more searching on this topic turned up a second article from the CBC news website in 2009. In the news article titled, Wildlife groups hail court ruling on sage-grouse, the transfer was probably initiated by a court ruling that ruled that Canada did not protect enough tracts of land in Alberta and Saskatchewan that act as breeding grounds for the grouse.
According to the CBC article,
“In the past year, sage-grouse numbers have dropped an estimated 20 per cent, with Alberta Fish and Wildlife counting 66 males on leks in the spring of 2009, down from 84 in 2008.”
Leks are the breeding areas of the sage grouse.
It is always good news to hear that species can receive protection when population densities plummet. I immediately think of the successful re-introduction of the wild turkey to our area of Ontario.
My only concern about this type of good news is that land now impacted by these new protected areas will have an effect on farmers who require the land for their crops and livelihoods.
The Endangered Species Act can be a two edged sword. Let’s work hard on keeping the balance.
