Wyoming wildlife officials have set aside money to send helicopters to search for a sage grouse flock thatâs suspected to dwell somewhere up the Gros Ventre River basin.
A year ago, there was a credible report of 18 sage grouse seen flying in the Cottonwood Creek area. If theyâre found again and verified, the flock would be a difference-maker for the Gros Ventreâs grouse, which were last officially surveyed with just two males remaining. The tanking official grouse tally was grounds for a proposal to augment the population by bringing in birds from the Green River basin. Transmitter backpacks were even purchased to track the translocated birdsâ success, but then this month the Wyoming Game and Fish Department decided it would not act on that idea.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has again turned down local biologistsâ proposal to add birds to a tiny, isolated sage grouse population that dwells up the Gros Ventre River basin in order to avert its total collapse.
The idea of augmenting the Gros Ventreâs resident grouse, last censused with just two male birds remaining, was born from a local working group that helps oversee Jackson Holeâs sage grouse. Plans to add adult hens with their broods were in motion ahead of summer 2020, but the statewide Sage Grouse Implementation Teamâs adaptive management working group put the translocation project on hold. Planning to instead take action in 2021, the local group geared up for the grouse import, purchasing telemetry equipment so it could track the success of the translocated birds.