Nevada lawmakers seek OK to kill ravens, aid sage grouse

By Michelle Rindels, Associated Press

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 | 5:15 p.m.

CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers hope to prevent sage grouse from landing on the Endangered Species List by taking aim at ravens, which are notorious egg-snatchers.

The Senate Natural Resources Committee held a meeting Tuesday to discuss AJR2, which would urge Congress to remove or alter protections that the common raven enjoys under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

"A known cause of decline in the sage grouse population is egg depredation by the common raven," the resolution reads, "and research conducted at Idaho State University has suggested that reductions in the raven population significantly increase sage grouse nest success."

Republican Sen. Pete Goicoechea said the federal government allows the killing of a limited number of ravens, but he believes the caps are too low considering the flourishing raven population.

Groups including the Nevada Conservation League and the Nevada Cattlemen's Association spoke in favor of the measure Tuesday, while nobody testified in opposition.

Nevada Department of Wildlife Spokesman Chris Healy said his agency has killed ravens with federal permission by baiting them with poisoned chicken eggs. But he said extermination is just one component of bolstering the sage grouse population, and the biggest concern is keeping the grouse's habitat healthy and free from wildfire and excessive development.

"We're not against killing ravens," Healy said. "We just can't do that and not solve the other problems."

He also pointed out that there are other ways to get at the root cause of high raven populations. Telephone wires and other infrastructure provide perches for predators that target sage grouse, and road kill left out too long or landfills left uncovered provide food that boosts raven populations.

"When you kill predators, it's a short-term solution," he said.

Sage grouse occupy 290,000 square miles of sage brush habitat in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and portions of southern Canada. Populations have fallen 90 percent in the past century, and habitat has declined 50 percent.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in 2010 that sage grouse across the West deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act, and plans to make a final decision about a listing later this year.

State officials hope to stave off the listing, which could result in federal restrictions on grazing, mining, oil and gas drilling and other activities on public land.