BOISE, Idaho - Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is calling for a new wildfire-fighting strategy that protects a wide swath of sagebrush country in the intermountain West that supports cattle ranching and is home to a struggling bird species.
She issued an order Tuesday seeking a "science-based" approach that safeguards the greater sage grouse while contending with fires that have been especially destructive in the Great Basin region of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and California.
The order from Jewell creates a task force and sets a March 1 deadline for it to report on guidelines to be put in place for the 2015 wildfire season.
"Targeted action is urgently needed to conserve habitat for the greater sage grouse and other wildlife in the Great Basin, as well as to maintain ranching and recreation economies that depend on sagebrush landscapes," Jewell said.
Task for member Janice Schneider, assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management, declined to comment on what the new strategy might look like. But she noted Jewell's order marks a "very significant point in time for the department in terms of how it handles fire."
Wildfires have grown more destructive. Scientists say warmer and dryer summers have increased the length of the wildfire seasons, which are worsened by fire-prone invasive species such as cheatgrass.
The fires wipe out grazing areas for cattle and native plants such as sagebrush, in turn eliminating the species that rely on them, notably the greater sage grouse.
Since 2012, Schneider noted, more than 2.5 million acres of sage grouse habitat has burned on Bureau of Land Management land. It can take decades for sagebrush to return. Nonnative plants often move in first, only to burn a few years later.
Jewell's order is an attempt to stop that cycle and protect the sagebrush steppe that is part of the Western landscape.
Population estimates for greater sage grouse range from 100,000 to 500,000 birds. They occupy 290,000 square miles of habitat in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Experts say an endangered species listing for the sage grouse could damage state economies.
Jewell instructed the task force to work with federal, state and local agencies to consider priorities on where firefighting resources are sent, find ways to fight fire-prone invasive species, and devise strategies to recover burned areas.
One of the possible changes suggested at the conference by BLM Director Neil Kornze was to put the protection of rangeland resources ahead of property. The protection of human life would remain the top priority.
