By Nate Poppino

Mountain Home rancher Steve Damele is the kind of cattleman who doesn’t mince words when talking about threatened species on his land. But he only had one answer when asked if his property was habitat for the Greater sage grouse.

“I’d rather not say.”

Such worries are commonplace as the federal government completes a lengthy review of whether to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act. The birds’ numbers have dropped for a decade, some believe to half its historic habitat. Southern Idaho is one region where numbers are on the decline.

The debate over the bird, which lives in sagebrush areas across nearly 260,000 square miles of the West, has already ignited a controversial debate intertwining politics and science. ESA protections for anything but plants stretch over both public and private land, and federal listing of the bird would have a heavy impact on energy projects, traditional land uses and economic growth in southern Idaho.

Biologists could decide on listing as early as next month, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must meet a court-ordered deadline. With conservationists, ranchers and energy developers all watching nervously, the decision won’t please everybody.

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