Clait Braun became one of the nation’s foremost sage grouse authorities in a rather indirect fashion. He’d just started working for the Colorado Division of Wildlife and was asked to take over leadership of an ongoing study into the effects on sage grouse of spraying insecticides and herbicides in the birds’ habitat. Braun, newly out of school and an avian specialist, accepted the challenge.

More than 30 years later, Braun is the expert on sage grouse. The bird he began studying in such a serendipitous manner ended up capturing his imagination and directing his career.

"I like grouse in general, but sage grouse particularly intrigued me," Braun says. "I’m fascinated by an animal that depends on something people think is poor quality—sagebrush."

Braun, who has a masters in wildlife management from the University of Montana and a doctorate in wildlife biology from Colorado State University, focused on ptarmigan, band-tailed pigeons, morning doves, and waterfowl in school, but he quickly shifted his focus to the sage grouse when the opportunity arose. In the intervening years, he has published more than 200 technical papers on birds and directed research and management for sage grouse in Colorado for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Since his retirement in 1999, he’s pursued his work under the auspices of his private consulting firm, Grouse, Inc. Braun, who now lives in Arizona, continues to monitor the fate of the grouse closely. Unfortunately, what he discovered over the years does not bode well for the future of the birds.

Sage grouse habitat being ripped apart
"What is happening in Wyoming and Montana greatly concerns me," Braun says. "If you picture a blanket of sagebrush stretching across the West—that blanket is sage grouse habitat. The birds are dependent upon this habitat throughout all their life processes…Today we are ripping the blanket into little pieces. "Consequently we are losing population stability. Right now oil and gas is the hot issue, but you also have cheat grass, pinyon-juniper encroachment, West Nile virus... the list goes on.

"I believe that by 2050 there will only be a handful of viable populations of sage grouse left—anywhere," Braun says. Braun says the picture need not be so dire if federal land managers had the political will to make some radical changes in their management of sagebrush country. Unfortunately, he is not overly optimistic that such changes will ever occur.

Radical changes in land management required to sustain grouse
In Braun’s mind, the only thing that will prevent the birds’ precipitous slide into extinction would be a concerted effort to stop further habitat fragmentation and to work to improve existing habitat that has been degraded by development and grazing. For the oil and gas industry that means staged development and directional drilling to limit surface occupancy and maintain forage and cover. It also means large buffer zones around leks and breeding grounds.

But such policy changes are expensive and politically unpopular, in spite of the scientific evidence that supports them. "The BLM’s present quarter-mile buffer around active leks is scientifically unsound, and the available data indicate that such a weak measure is a prescription for local population extinction. To be realistic, a three-mile buffer from surface disturbance is needed to protect sage grouse during breeding and nesting," Braun says.

"The quarter mile or half mile restrictions [currently required by the BLM in Wyoming] seem to have been created to justify existing practices," he concludes. It’s not just well sites that jeopardize sage grouse according to Braun. Everything from power poles that serve as perches for hawks and eagles to the roads, weeds, noise, dust, and people associated with full-field development can be detrimental. And the oil and gas industry is only the latest culprit in the birds’ current plight. Sage grouse numbers have been declining for years. Grazing, housing subdivisions, even golf courses are incompatible with healthy sage grouse habitats in many cases.

"I fly across the West and get very disheartened," Braun says. "In my lifetime, I’ve seen [sage grouse] populations disappear. Gone. They are not coming back. It almost makes me sick to my stomach." "Land managers are paralyzed by the present political atmosphere," he continues. "They are unable to make the right decision [about protecting sage grouse]. They cannot speak out because they need their job. Well I can speak out now."

When asked what sage grouse need to thrive, Braun says he estimates a viable population of approximately 2,000 birds needs around 400 square miles of unbroken habitat. He adds that when he tells people this, they laugh. "Forty square miles, maybe," Braun says. "But 400? No way."

Pitting science against "science"
Many people have attacked Braun and tried to discredit his research and findings. A political action group "Partnership for the West" has made finding people to counter Braun’s research one of its primary goals. Partnership for the West argues on its website that sage grouse populations are stable and that Braun’s gloom and doom stance, coupled with the threat of listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act, are depriving oil and gas companies, ranchers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts and other public land users of their rights.

Such propoganda twists evidence to support a position, in spite of the indisputable fact that overall distribution of sage grouse has declined by at least 50 percent and its abundance has plummeted 80 to 90 percent.

"I saw a press release put out by two scientists hired by oil and gas and I was flabbergasted to say the least," Braun says. "I don’t want to throw stones, but there are people out there that can be convinced that oil and gas companies speak with sincerity and truth. It amazes me. They are ignoring science." Braun is a firm believer in science. He cautions people against jumping on any kind of bandwagon until exhaustive research has been done to support that position. But for him, the research has been done on sage grouse, and while some questions remain unanswered, what is clear is that continuing practices presently in place will not improve conditions for local populations of sage grouse. Rather, they will only lead to continued decline in the health of sagebrush habitat and in the distribution and abundance of sage grouse.

"I am sad that I was not quick enough to do a better job protecting the grouse," Braun says. "I knew what was happening. I wrote a paper about the declining population in the early 1990s and my director [at the Colorado Division of Wildlife] asked me not to give it."

Sage grouse’s Cassandra?
The director’s request kept Braun quiet for a few years, but in 1998 he decided to speak out. His numbers shocked people. According to Braun’s research, there were only 140,000 to 200,000 sage grouse left in North America compared to the millions of birds estimated to have roamed the West at the time of Lewis and Clark’s expedition 200 years ago.

"Was I very popular with my directors after I gave that paper? No. Did I lose support? Absolutely. Was that one of the main reasons I left [the Colorado Division of Wildlife]? Absolutely," Braun says. "But I had 30 years in the agency and a proven scientific track record so there wasn’t much they could do to discredit me," he continues. "Now I can say what I think and hope people will listen."

And what he thinks still goes back to the science. When asked about the potential links between coalbed methane produced waters, mosquitoes and sage grouse mortality from West Nile virus, Braun says it’s too early to tell. "I’ve been accused of denying people the use of the smoking gun, but I’m a scientist. I look at the science.

"They may be right and there may be a link between West Nile virus, coalbed methane and sage grouse mortality, but it makes me nervous to jump to that conclusion," Braun says. "I know how irrigation has been practiced in the West. It’s been sloppy and conducive to harboring mosquitoes. There’s no shortage of water. "So I encourage people not to leap too fast. Consider the science first. Some may think I’m an old fogey and that’s all right. I just think we need to wait and see."

Braun does not believe oil and gas development has to be incompatible with healthy sage grouse populations. He says studies conducted in Jackson County, Colorado indicate that sage grouse will come back to areas that have been disturbed once the development ends, but the critical thing is that they have somewhere to go in the interim. The scale of development in Wyoming and Montana concerns him. He does not think enough habitat will remain intact to harbor the birds while development takes place. By the time the natural gas boom is over, there may be no birds to move back in.

Braun has left the active research into sage grouse to the next generation, although he hasn’t quite given up all his field work. He is currently studying ptarmigan and spent part of June in the Aleutians working on a project to reintroduce ptarmigan to the islands.

"My wife asked me when I was going to quit," Braun says. "I said 40 years. Well this is year 39…"