Montana Agrees to Send More Sage Grouse to Canada

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Montana has approved the relocation of 40 Montana sage grouse with the potential for an additional with an additional 40 grouse requested bi-annually (2018 and 2020) for a total of up to 120 birds over the next five years to help restore the struggling bird population in Alberta, Canada.  

This will be the second time, Montana Fish and Wildlife has agreed to relocate Montana sage grouse in Canada.  In 2011-12, FWP translocated 41 birds from Phillips and Valley counties to southeast Alberta. At that time, Alberta recorded less than 50 native sage grouse.  By 2013-14, two years after relocating Montana sage grouse, only about 40 birds were counted.  However, the following year, Alberta recorded a population increase in sage grouse to about 100 birds in 2015.
 

State Fish and Wildlife Commission chairman Dan Vermillion said Thursday that the program will help the recovery of the ground-dwelling bird on both sides of border.

According to documents released by the Fish and Wildlife Commission, removing up to 40 hens for translocation will not noticeably effect the population in Phillips and Valley counties, that is estimated to be around 10,000 birds in 2015.  There was one dissenting vote regarding for the relocation project over concerns that last year's increase of 60{f75e9bc95454961d27ea60375533d5bd3793c6b31aa68057771d9b5363a8de8e}  in the sage grouse population was an anomaly after multiple years of decline.

 

The commission authorized shipping 40 sage grouse hens to southern Alberta this year. The province has asked for a total of 120 birds by 2020, but state officials plan to review the effects of the program before any more relocations.

 

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© Northern Ag Network 2015

 

 

 

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