when we lose grouse in a landscape it’s
a major uphill battle one of the tools
that we have available to us is to
actually trap and transplant wild birds
from one place to another and the state
of Washington because their populations
have been so diminished over time that
they’ve been in this trap and
translocate operation these conservation
actions for a number of years now and
because the birds have been doing so
well in Oregon and our genetics are very
similar to what’s in Washington we have
been chosen as one of the source
populations this species absolutely
require sagebrush and they require large
landscapes of it because they need
options greater sage-grouse populations
in Oregon today represent really some of
the last strongholds for the species
unlike the rest of the West where we’ve
seen about a 50% reduction in habitat
we’ve only seen about a 30% reduction in
Oregon we largely have vast intact
landscapes of sagebrush Washington
historically was a major part of the
sage-grouse range we had a lot of
habitat here what because of so many
areas converted for weed we no longer
have birds
doing a translocation quite quite often
requires very difficult conditions
because like it is dark it is rocky a
lot of times you don’t know the terrain
very well once you find a bird and
you’re able to approach it with the
spotlight once you get really close we
can quickly put a net out and over the
bird and one six eight I need to make
sure handkerchief should be required to
yield you after processing birds usually
have somebody who will drive the birds
back to Washington it’s usually about a
10 to 12 hour drive and then the birds
will keep them overnight and release
them in the morning we look in
Washington and we can see the challenges
it’s obvious because of the transmission
lines the highways the people everything
is there 2008 through 2015 we
translocated 279 birds so far the
results have been fairly positive
populations higher this year than it was
last year that makes people very happy
it’s nice to have Birds back on that
landscape again
a major uphill battle one of the tools
that we have available to us is to
actually trap and transplant wild birds
from one place to another and the state
of Washington because their populations
have been so diminished over time that
they’ve been in this trap and
translocate operation these conservation
actions for a number of years now and
because the birds have been doing so
well in Oregon and our genetics are very
similar to what’s in Washington we have
been chosen as one of the source
populations this species absolutely
require sagebrush and they require large
landscapes of it because they need
options greater sage-grouse populations
in Oregon today represent really some of
the last strongholds for the species
unlike the rest of the West where we’ve
seen about a 50% reduction in habitat
we’ve only seen about a 30% reduction in
Oregon we largely have vast intact
landscapes of sagebrush Washington
historically was a major part of the
sage-grouse range we had a lot of
habitat here what because of so many
areas converted for weed we no longer
have birds
doing a translocation quite quite often
requires very difficult conditions
because like it is dark it is rocky a
lot of times you don’t know the terrain
very well once you find a bird and
you’re able to approach it with the
spotlight once you get really close we
can quickly put a net out and over the
bird and one six eight I need to make
sure handkerchief should be required to
yield you after processing birds usually
have somebody who will drive the birds
back to Washington it’s usually about a
10 to 12 hour drive and then the birds
will keep them overnight and release
them in the morning we look in
Washington and we can see the challenges
it’s obvious because of the transmission
lines the highways the people everything
is there 2008 through 2015 we
translocated 279 birds so far the
results have been fairly positive
populations higher this year than it was
last year that makes people very happy
it’s nice to have Birds back on that
landscape again
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