At the top of any list of qualities that make Colorado such a special place are wildlife and wild places. This natural heritage is why so many of us live here, and it’s what draws people to visit year after year. Protecting wild Colorado is not only a clearly ethical choice, but also one of enlightened self-interest.
That’s why the Gunnison sage-grouse deserves federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. A Nov. 14 Herald editorial opposed the decision by U.S. Fish & Wildlife to grant threatened protected status to the Gunnison sage-grouse. While state and local efforts have helped slow their decline, continued destruction of sagebrush habitat across the West has reduced sage-grouse numbers to precarious, isolated populations – totaling fewer than 5,000 birds. These cooperative political efforts are admirable, but they’re simply insufficient and biologically too little, too late.
Of course, there can be consequences for landowners under ESA listing. But that’s the price of taking responsibility for being the most overly successful species on the planet. Human beings can always justify exterminating other species – up to and including other human populations. Enacting federal protection for the Gunnison sage-grouse may just save this bird from such a fate and help preserve a part of what makes Colorado a healthy habitat for all of us.
Clint McKnight
Durango
