Judge’s ruling leaves sage grouse deal intact

BOISE – A federal judge is holding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to a deal reached with environmentalists that sets a timeline and other conditions on whether to grant threatened or endangered status to the sage grouse.

The wildlife agency sought to back out of a stipulation filed with the court in January that set a May 2009 deadline to determine whether to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act.

Across the West, decisions about the sage grouse are considered critical to the future of gas and oil drilling, agriculture and urban growth.

Last month, government attorneys sought to back out of the deal, saying top Fish and Wildlife officials never signed off on it. The agreement was approved by Department of Justice lawyers, who negotiated the timeline and other details with the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project.

In U.S. District Court on Friday, Robert Williams, the Justice Department lawyer representing the wildlife service, said the agreement is technically not binding because the government opted to back out before the judge signed it.

Williams also said that holding to arbitrary deadlines would keep agency officials from making a listing decision before 2009, and he argued that it’s customary for agency heads to consent to agreements before steps are taken to make them legally binding. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen here,” he said.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected those claims, saying the deal, which was filed with the court, should be treated and honored like any other legally binding contract.

The ruling is another setback for the agency since it ruled in January 2005 that the sage grouse did not merit threatened or endangered status.

In 2006, Western Watershed Project and other groups challenged the agency’s decision in federal court, claiming the decision not to list the species was flawed and unfairly influenced by political agendas.

Environmentalists and wildlife managers say the bird’s population and habitat has been diminishing for decades due to wildfires, grazing, energy development and drought. Researchers say the bird now occupies about half of its original, year-round habitat, which stretches across 11 Western states from California to Colorado and North Dakota.

The Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that it was conducting a new review of the bird’s status.