Sage-Grouse and Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Act

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Sage-Grouse and Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Act”.

Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

The West has experienced record fire activity over the past 15 years, in terms of size, frequency, and intensity. In 1999, nearly 1.7 million acres of the Great Basin burned in just a week. In 2006, ten million acres across the West burned. In 2007, more than nine million acres burned.

Much of this fire activity occurred outside of the forested areas in the dry sagebrush plains parched by years of drought and dominated by highly flammable, invasive cheatgrass. Often driven by fierce winds, these rangeland fires raced across the low-growing vegetation, burning hundreds of thousands of square miles before the fires could be contained.

Historically, sagebrush survived less intense wildfires that occurred infrequently, and the native grasses re-sprouted. But fire cycles have intensified and native plan communities cannot compete with cheatgrass, which spreads rapidly after a wildfire.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service considers wildland fire one of the most serious threats to sage-grouse habitat, and the Bureau of Land Management states wildfires are a leading cause of sagebrush habitat loss.

In 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service identified and charted the threats to the greater sage-grouse and their habitat in the West. According to its review, wildfire has a relative rank of 84 percent of the threat, and invasive species has a relative rank of 91 percent of the threat.

In 2012, 1.2 percent of the Greater Sage-Grouse’s preliminary general habitat and 2.7 percent of the species’ preliminary priority habitat was burned. Over 84 percent of sage-grouse habitat in Nevada is located on federally-managed land.”

The United States Fish and Wildlife has determined that overgrazing by wild horses and burros is a threat to sage-grouse habitat.

The Sage-Grouse National Technical Team report produced December 21, 2011, states that wild horses and burros have the potential to impact habitats used by sage-grouse by reducing grass, shrub, and forb cover and increasing unpalatable forbs and exotic plans including cheatgrass. Effects of wild equids on habitats may be especially pronounced during periods of drought or vegetation stress. Wild equids have different grazing patterns than domestic livestock, thus increasing the magnitude of grazing across the entire landscape.

On February 28, 2013, the Bureau of Land Management estimated there were 20,195 wild free-roaming horses and burros in Nevada. Nevada has more wild free-roaming horses than the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming combined.

The Bureau of Land Management has determined that the appropriate management level for wild horses and burros in Nevada for fiscal year 2013 was 12,789, but, because wild horses and burros have virtually no predators, their herd sizes can double approximately every four years.